[ti:Experts Say Productivity Increases Might Explain US Economy’s Strength]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[00:00.04]Worker shortages in the United States
[00:04.12]have led some companies to invest in machines
[00:08.12]to do some of the work
[00:10.04]they cannot find people to do.
[00:13.40]The companies have also been training workers
[00:16.92]to use new technology
[00:19.24]so they can produce more with less.
[00:23.24]The result has been an unexpected increase in productivity,
[00:28.76]a measure of economic performance.
[00:31.88]Productivity compares two sets of data:
[00:36.36]outputs and inputs.
[00:39.76]Outputs are the goods and services produced,
[00:43.16]while the inputs are what is needed
[00:45.88]to create those goods and services.
[00:49.72]The productivity increase represents a change
[00:53.32]from the years before the COVID-19 pandemic years.
[00:57.68]Yearly productivity growth averaged around 1.5 percent,
[01:03.60]business advisory company RSM estimates.
[01:08.16]Things changed when the economy
[01:11.28]moved out of the 2020 recession.
[01:14.64]Businesses had difficulties bringing back
[01:17.96]the many workers they had lost.
[01:21.16]The resulting worker shortage sent pay higher.
[01:25.44]Inflation increased for a number of reasons.
[01:29.92]One was that factories and ports
[01:32.84]had problems meeting rising product orders
[01:36.12]while shipping slowed.
[01:38.12]Shortages of parts were also reported.
[01:42.92]Many companies turned to automation.
[01:46.40]Investment in equipment
[01:48.64]and in research and development
[01:51.08]and other forms of intellectual property grew.
[01:55.28]The Associated Press reports
[01:57.72]that the efficiency effects
[02:00.00]began to arrive almost a year ago.
[02:03.44]The U.S. government's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
[02:09.28]reports on productivity.
[02:11.80]The BLS released its most recent
[02:15.40]productivity numbers on February 1.
[02:18.60]The bureau said: "Nonfarm business sector labor productivity
[02:24.64]increased 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023."
[02:32.00]Batesville Tool & Die is a company
[02:35.40]based in the Midwestern state of Indiana.
[02:39.16]Trying to keep up with customer demand,
[02:42.68]Batesville Tool & Die
[02:45.00]began looking for 70 people to hire last year.
[02:49.28]It was not easy.
[02:51.12]Getting factory workers to move
[02:53.76]to a small community of 7,300 people
[02:58.64]in the Indiana countryside was difficult.
[03:02.16]Job seekers were rare there.
[03:04.96]"You could count on one hand
[03:07.24]how many people in the town were unemployed,"
[03:10.76]said Jody Fledderman, the company chief.
[03:14.76]Batesville Tool & Die
[03:16.88]filled just 40 of its job openings.
[03:20.64]But then the company invested in machines
[03:24.20]that could work like human workers
[03:26.80]and in vision systems,
[03:28.56]which helped its robots "see" what they were doing.
[03:32.84]Austan Goolsbee is president
[03:35.04]of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
[03:38.40]He has compared increasing productivity
[03:41.64]to "magic...for the economy...
[03:44.52]You can have faster income increases,
[03:47.48]faster wage growth, faster GDP
[03:51.16]without generating inflation.''
[03:53.88]Joe Brusuelas is chief economist at RSM.
[03:58.80]He said, "The last time we saw anything like this
[04:02.56]was the late 1990s."
[04:05.60]At that time, Brusuelas said, a productivity increase
[04:10.56]— an early result from the sudden use of laptops,
[04:14.48]cellphones, and the internet
[04:16.84]— helped keep borrowing rates low.
[04:19.80]Inflation remained under control
[04:22.48]even as the economy and the job market were strong.
[04:26.56]This time, the U.S. central bank
[04:29.16]has increased the interest rates it controls
[04:32.28]11 times starting in March 2022.
[04:35.96]That has played a part in easing inflation
[04:39.36]from a 40-year high of 9.1 percent
[04:43.36]to around 3.1 percent.
[04:46.16]"I would have said it's not possible,'' said Sal Guatieri
[04:51.20]who is an economist at BMO Capital Markets.
[04:55.68]"But that's exactly what happened.''
[04:59.52]A year ago, many economists warned
[05:02.64]that a recession was very likely.
[05:05.40]Jerome Powell leads the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank.
[05:09.56]Powell warned in 2022 that beating inflation
[05:14.84]would result in "some pain" in the form
[05:17.80]of widespread job losses and unemployment.
[05:22.08]Last month, Powell said something different.
[05:26.08]With unemployment near a 50-year low,
[05:29.56]Powell told reporters,
[05:31.52]"We've had a very strong labor market,
[05:34.00]and we've had inflation coming down."
[05:37.24]He did warn that the central bank wants to see
[05:40.72]further progress in slowing inflation.
[05:43.52]But the Fed is so optimistic that inflation
[05:47.00]is heading toward its two percent goal
[05:49.80]that it has not raised rates since July.
[05:53.80]Some experts expect the central bank
[05:56.72]to cut its interest rates several times this year.
[06:00.64]At a news conference this month,
[06:03.40]Powell was asked whether he believed
[06:06.04]higher productivity helps explain why the economy
[06:10.08]has kept growing even while inflation has fallen.
[06:14.88]"That's one way to look at it — yeah," Powell replied.
[06:19.72]I'm John Russell. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA京香2018下载
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