Another spring, another sputtering American recovery. For the third year in a row, what many anticipated to be a return to robust growth is beginning to look like another summer of hibernation. Last Friday’s payroll numbers showed a 115,000 drop in joblessness, barely enough to match population growth. And the ratio of Americans seeking work continues to go in the wrong direction, which flatters the official unemployment number. It fell a decimal point to 8.1 per cent last month. If no one had dropped out of the labour market, the official rate would have risen.
又一個(gè)春天，又一場(chǎng)磕磕碰碰的美國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)復(fù)蘇。這已是連續(xù)第三年：許多人預(yù)期將重歸強(qiáng)勁增長(zhǎng)的美國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)，開始看起來又將在夏天進(jìn)入蟄伏。最近的就業(yè)數(shù)據(jù)顯示，失業(yè)人數(shù)減少11.5萬，勉強(qiáng)與人口增長(zhǎng)相匹配。尋找工作的美國(guó)人比例繼續(xù)向錯(cuò)誤的方向變動(dòng)，這對(duì)官方失業(yè)數(shù)據(jù)起到粉飾作用。4月失業(yè)率下降0.1個(gè)百分點(diǎn)至8.1%。如果沒有人退出勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)，這個(gè)官方數(shù)據(jù)本來是會(huì)上升的。