They have concluded that a 7 % unemployment level is acceptable to 93 % of the working population.
Слова и выражения:
acceptable – приемлемый
brand – марка, торговое имя
chip – раскалывать, разбивать
conclude – заключать
disconnect – разъединять, отсоединять
disturb – беспокоить
drapes – занавески, шторы
material – здесь : инструкция по применению
occupation – занятие, место работы
pharmacy – аптека
guarantee – гарантия; гарантировать
statement – заявление, утверждение
sweat suit – свитер
therapy – терапия
thermometer – термометр
" I hate my job" day – день, когда вы ненавидите свою работу
rectal thermometer – ректальный термометр
small print – маленькие буквы
personally tested – прошедший индивидуальное тестирование
quality control – служба контроля за качеством
" Best Thermo" Company – Компания «Лучшие термометры»
approval ratings – показатели, необходимые для одобрения политики
Exercise 8
Answer the questions:
1. Have you ever had a day «I hate my job»?
2. Where can we by a thermometer?
3. What brand of a thermometer do we have to buy to feel eventually how happy we are?
4. What do we have to do on coming home with a thermometer in our hands?
5. What statement should we carefully read, and what does this statement mean in plain words?
6. Would you want to work for quality control of the «Best Thermo» Company?
7. How long did it take the government to work out the approval ratings for unemployment?
8. What unemployment level is acceptable to the working segment of the working population?Unemployment
Unemployment statistics are of major concern for most economists. But, actually, not all people out of work may be classed as unemployed. If someone reports that he is both out of work and seeking employment, he is counted as an unemployed member of the labour force.
The jobless who have chosen not to continue looking for work are considered out of the labour force and therefore are not counted as unemployed. Thus, the unemployment rate in many countries includes only people within the labour force who are out of work.
Not all unemployment is the same. Unemployment can be long– or short-term. It can be frictional, meaning someone is between jobs. Or it may be structural, as when someone\'s skills are no longer demanded because of a change in technology or an industry downturn.
There are two causes of recorded long-term unemployment in the developed countries. Those are welfare payments and unemployment insurance. These government assistance programs contribute to long-term unemployment in two ways.
First, government assistance increases the measure of unemployment by prompting people who are not working to claim that they are looking for work even when they are not. The work-registration requirement for welfare recipients, for example, compels people who otherwise would not be considered part of the labour force to register as if they were a part of it. This requirement effectively increases the measure of unemployed in the labour force even though these people are better described as unemployed – that is, not actively looking for work.
Similarly, unemployment insurance increases the measure of unemployment by inducing people to say that they are job hunting in order to collect benefits. Thus government assistance programs contribute to long-term unemployment by providing an incentive, and the means, not to work. Each unemployed person has a «reservation wage» – the minimum wage he or she insists on getting before accepting a job. Unemployment insurance and other social assistance programs increase that reservation wage, causing an unemployed person to remain unemployed longer.
Consider, for example, an unemployed person who is used to making $10.00 an hour. On unemployment insurance this person receives about 55 percent of normal earnings, or $5.50 per lost work hour. If that person is in a 15 percent federal tax bracket, and a 3 percent state tax bracket, he or she pays $0.99 in taxes per hour not worked and nets $4.51 per hour after taxes as compensation for not working. If that person took a job that paid $10.00 per hour, governments would take 18 percent for income taxes and 7.5 percent for Social Security taxes, netting him or her $7.45 per hour of work. Comparing the two payments, this person may decide that a day of leisure is worth more than the extra $2.94 an hour the job would pay. If so, this means that the unemployment insurance raises the person\'s reservation wage to above $10.00 per hour.
Слова и выражения:
bracket – категория, налоговая ниша
claim – требовать, предъявлять требования, заявлять
compel – принуждать, понуждать
concern – озабоченность
frictional – фрикционная
induce – понуждать, принуждать
leisure – отдых, досуг
net – получать «чистыми» ( после налогообложения )
prompt – подсказывать
recipient – получатель
report – сообщать, извещать, докладывать
structural – структурная
welfare – благосостояние
major concern – главная причина озабоченности
be counted as – считаться (в качестве)
people within the labour force – люди, включенные в число рабочей силы, трудовых ресурсов
industry downturn – спад в промышленности
welfare payment – пособие, направленное на повышение уровня благосостояния
assistance programs – программы помощи
work-registration requirement – регистрационные требования для безработных
job hunting – поиски работы, «охота на работу»
collect benefits – получать блага
reservation wage – резервационная зарплата
tax bracket – категория налогоплательщиков
Exercise 9
Answer the questions:
1. Why are unemployment statistics of major concern for most economists?
2. What people does the unemployment rate in many countries include?
3. What types of unemployment can there be?
4. What are the two causes of long-term unemployment in the developed countries?
5. What does government assistance induce unemployed to do?
6. What is the difference between the unemployed and the unemployed?
7. How does unemployment insurance change the measure of unemployment?
8. What is a reservation wage?
9. How much does an unemployed receive relative to what he would receive while working?
10. Does unemployment in developed countries create incentives to work?Productivity
Productivity is the basic criterion of an economy\'s health. When productivity is rising, living standards and the quality of life are rising as well. The rate of productivity growth is the most important thing for the economic well-being of a country.
The most familiar definition of labour productivity is output divided by the number of workers or, more usually, by the number of hours worked. Output can be expressed in tons of iron or numbers of jeans\' pairs, but usually it is some very broad aggregate like gross domestic product.
Other ways of defining productivity take into consideration other inputs, such as managerial skill, innovation and technology, organization.
While such factors of production as land or population are always limited, the prospects for increasing productivity are boundless. Studies of the US economy show that half of the growth in labour productivity in the postwar years there has been due not to the use of added capital, but to making better use of these inputs.
There are only three ways by which a country can raise the level of consumption, and, correspondingly, of its well-being. First, a larger number of citizens can go to work. Second, a country can borrow from abroad. Third, the country can increase productivity of labour. Whereas there are limits on what portion of the population can join the home labour force and on how much foreigners will lend, the potential for boosting productivity are limitless.
The number one country in the world at any given time has always been the productivity leader. It was northern Italy from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, the Dutch republic in the seventeenth and early eighteenth, Britain in the late eighteenth and most of the nineteenth, and the United States for the entire twentieth century.
Слова и выражения:
aggregate – совокупность; совокупный
boundless – безграничный
criterion – критерий
define – определять
definition – определение
entire – полный, целый
familiar – известный, знакомый
portion – часть
postwar – послевоенный
productivity – производительность (труда)
whereas – в то время как
well-being – благосостояние
divided by – разделенный (на)
managerial skill – мастерство управления
due to – благодаря ( чему-либо ), из-за ( чего-либо )
added capital – добавленный капитал
the Dutch republic – Голландская республикаExercise 10
Answer the questions:
1. Why is the rate of productivity growth considered the most important thing for the economic well-being of a country?
2. What is the most familiar definition of labour productivity?
3. In what terms can output be expressed?
4. What other inputs apart from hours worked, can be taken into consideration in talking about productivity?