美国大批公务员遭裁员导致失业率居高不下_BEC初级作文

美国大批公务员遭裁员导致失业率居高不下

Government payrolls typically swell in economic recoveries, by 5.9% on average during the first 34 months after a recession has ended, according to data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Not this time, however: from June of 2009 government employment dropped by 2.7% (see chart). The 2.5m overall rise in employment since the downturn’s end corresponds to 3.1m new private jobs, less 600,000 lost government ones。

根据劳动统计局提供的数据，自经济大萧条结束至接下来经济复苏阶段的34个月，政府工资总支出明显增多了，平均每月增长5.9%。然而，这次不同：2009年6月以来，政府的雇佣率下降了2.7%(见图表)。本次萧条结束，总共新增250万个工作岗位，私营企业提供了310个工作岗位，而政府减少了不到60万个工作岗位。

The bloodletting has been concentrated at local level. Despite a drop of 52,000 over the past year, federal government employment is unchanged since mid-2009. The states, by contrast, have shed roughly 100,000 workers over that period, while local governments have cut over 500,000 jobs, most of them in education。

政府才是失业率居高不下的关键。且不论去年裁员了52,000人，联邦政府每年新雇员人数自2009年起一直没有改变。而各州政府在这一时期解雇了10万人，地方政府削减了超过50万个工作岗位，而这些岗位大部分来自教育部门。

Budget constraints are to blame. Most state and local governments are not allowed to borrow to cover shortfalls. So when tax revenues plummet, as they did during and after the recession, spending must fall in concert. Local governments, which rely heavily on property taxes to fund local schools, have been particularly hard hit by the prolonged slump in house values. Consequently, employment in public education is down by 266,000 since 2009. A “right-sizing” of state and local governments was certainly in order after the boom. Yet cuts in teaching staff may be unsustainable, since large classes are unpopular; and though it is too early to assess the cost to pupils, they could also prove damaging in the longer term。