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  3. One puzzle of this somber economy is the existence of unfilled jobs in the m

One puzzle of this somber economy is the existence of unfilled jobs in the m

游客2024-10-08  22
问题     One puzzle of this somber economy is the existence of unfilled jobs in the midst of mass unemployment. You might think that with almost 14 million Americans unemployed—and nearly half those for more than six months—that companies could fill almost any opening quickly. Not so. Somehow, there’s a mismatch between idle workers and open jobs. Economists call this " structural unemployment.
    Let’s acknowledge two realities. First, though structural joblessness is important, the main cause of high unemployment remains the deep slump. In the recession, jobs dropped 20 percent in construction, 15 percent in manufacturing and 7 percent in retailing. Only a stronger economy can remedy this unemployment. Second, a big economy like ours always has some vacancies. People quit or get fired. Hiring procedures grind slowly. Some highly specialized jobs are inherently hard to fill: say, a transportation engineer fluent in both Chinese and English.
    The job mismatch hobbles recovery and bodes ill. The harder it is for workers to find jobs, the longer they stay unemployed—and this, in turn, worsens their prospects. " Long-term unemployment sends a negative signal to employers: What’s wrong with this person?" says Holzer. Some jobs lost in the recession and the associated skills won’t return.
    Theories abound as to what’s gone wrong. For skilled blue-collar jobs, high schools have de-emphasized vocational training, community colleges often aren’t well-connected to local job markets and union apprenticeship programs have withered, says Anthony Carnevale, director of Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce. Another theory is that Americans are less willing to move to take jobs. The McKinsey study reports that, in the 1950s, one in five Americans moved every year; now it’s one in 10. "Work is more mobile than workers, " says Camden.
    Companies traditionally provided much training, but that may also have changed. Loyalties have weakened. Companies are more willing to fire; workers are more willing to jump ship. Training may seem a poor investment because workers won’t stay long enough to earn a return. In the McKinsey survey, companies denied cutting training budgets. But Carnevale and others think the training has altered. Before, firms provided more basic training in business or technology skills; now, firms expect workers to come with these skills and focus training on firm-specific practices and systems.
    So it’s a Catch-22: You can’t get hired unless you have experience; but you can’t get experience unless you’re hired. With technology changing rapidly, workers need to know more, even as their skills-support systems weaken. There is no instant cure for today’s job mismatch, but it might ease if America’s largest companies were a little bolder. Surely many of them—enjoying strong profits—could make a small gamble that, by providing more training for workers, they might actually do themselves and the country some good. [br] The author holds that large companies should be more ______ to solve the problem of unemployment.
选项 A、responsible
B、generous
C、open-minded
D、strategic
答案 A
解析 推断题。对于失业问题的解决，作者在最后一段的末尾处简要提出了自己的看法。他认为享受着高额利润的大公司应该多为员工提供培训机会，这是对自身和国家都有益的事情。暗示不能只享受利益，不承担责任，故[A]“有责任感的”为答案。在享受利益的同时，也做出对社会有益的事情，这不仅仅是“慷慨的”和“心胸开阔的”的问题，故[B]和[C]对原文的概括不准确，应排除；而大公司对于应培训的问题并非没有认识，只是担心投入的资金没有相应的回报，因此不是策略问题，故[D]也不正确。
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