商业周刊:最后雇佣却先遭解雇(5)（在线收听）

Now Nash is among millions of retail workers who lost their jobs as coronavirus shutdowns rolled across the country.

现在，随着新冠病毒在全国范围内致使商店倒闭，纳什成为数百万失业的零售业工人中的一员。

While the industry's been in turmoil in recent years, employment in the sector had finally regained pre-financial crisis levels in 2015,

尽管该行业近年来一直处于动荡之中，但其就业率终于在2015年恢复到金融危机前的水平，

with 15.7 million workers, and wages hit a 15-year high.

拥有1570万名工人，工资也创下了15年来的新高。

Now, even if stores reopen, there's concern that shoppers may not come back, either because they fear infection or because their incomes are constrained. Workers may not either.

现在，即使商店重新开业，人们担心购物者可能不会回来，要么是因为他们害怕感染，要么是因为他们的收入受到限制。工人也可能不会再回来了。

"I don't see myself returning there for a while or at all," says Nash, who has been unable to collect her final paycheck, which is inside the shuttered store.

纳什说：“我暂时不会回去，或者永远不会回去了。”她一直无法拿到最后的工资支票，它待在倒闭的商店里。

Nash, who lives at home with her parents, qualified for a stimulus check. Like many others, she's found applying for unemployment a frustrating ordeal.

纳什和父母住在家里，她有资格获得刺激经济个人支票。和其他许多人一样，她发现申请失业保障是件令人沮丧的磨人事。”

"This process has to be a whole lot easier," she says. "It's like you're being punished for being poor or not having a job."

她说：“这个过程必须要更为简单，就好像你因为贫穷或没有工作而受到惩罚一样。”

Karla Wagoner used to work 36 hours a week as a home health aide, feeding, bathing, or socializing with elderly and sick patients.

卡拉·瓦格纳过去每周工作36小时，做家庭健康助理、喂饭、洗澡或与老人和病人交流。

She's now down to just six hours a week, as clients' families have canceled services over fears of the virus or because they now have time to care for their relatives themselves.

她现在每周只工作六小时，因为客户的家人担心病毒，或因为他们现在有时间照顾自己的亲戚而取消了服务。

A resident of Fort Collins, Colo., the 72-year-old Wagoner is in the fastest-growing labor participation cohort: workers age 65 and over.

72岁的瓦格纳是科罗拉多州柯林斯堡的居民，其所属的65岁及以上的工人，是人数增长最快的劳动者群体。

Older Americans are postponing retirement as they live longer. In the past few years, some were also called back to jobs when employers faced shortages of skilled labor.

美国老年人因寿命延长而推迟退休。在过去几年中，当雇主面临技术劳动力短缺时，一些人也会被召回工作岗位。

Wagoner, who shares a home with her son, now also unemployed, and granddaughter, collects social security.

瓦格纳和她的儿子和孙女住在一起，她的儿子现在也失业了，孙女领取社会保险。

The $12.50 to $15 an hour she makes as a health aide pays for groceries, travel, and "anything else above and beyond," she says.

她说，作为一名健康助理，她每小时挣12.50美元到15美元，用来支付日常用品、旅行以及“其它物品”。

"We're just trying to reduce everything: insurance costs, different things that we have control of. We're hopping around more competitively, lowering the budget."

我们只是想减少一切费用：保险费用，以及我们能控制的各种事情。进行比较之后再采购，降低预算。”

Her employer doesn't offer automatic sick leave or hazard pay. Plus, Wagoner must supply her own personal protection gear.

她的雇主不提供自动病假或危险津贴。另外，瓦格纳必须提供自己的个人防护装备。

"My granddaughter and I took some handkerchiefs and made some homemade masks," she says,

“我和孙女拿了一些手帕，自制了些口罩，”她说，

and the Colorado care workers union also brought some medical ones to her door. She bought a box of latex gloves herself.

科罗拉多州护理工人工会也为家中送来一些医用口罩。她自己买了一盒乳胶手套。