2016考研英语经济学人：西班牙经济伊比利亚的黎明

考研英语来源：经济学人 2015-08-05　

Spain's economy

西班牙经济

Iberian dawn

伊比利亚的黎明

The labour market is recovering at last. But it needsfurther reform

劳动市场最终还是复苏了，但是其需要进一步的改革。

THIS was the news the government had been waitingfor. “Spain's labour market has made a 180-degree turn,” crowed the prime minister, MarianoRajoy, as the country announced the first annual rise in employment in six years. Thenumbers show that unpopular reforms to the malfunctioning labour market are starting towork. But there is plenty left to do.

这是政府翘首以待的消息。“西班牙的劳动力市场已经发生了180度的大转弯”，当西班牙政府宣布这是六年来西班牙首次就业增长时，西班牙总理马里亚诺·拉霍伊对此洋洋自得。这些数字表明那些不受失灵劳动力市场待见的改革也已经初见成效，但仍有许多东西亟待解决。

In the past year Spain has created 190,000 jobs. The unemployment rate, still one of thehighest in the euro zone, fell from 26% to 24.5% (see chart), and the labour force stoppedshrinking after six straight quarters of decline.

在过去的一年中西班牙国内增加了19万个就业岗位。在欧元区位列前茅的失业率从之前的26%下降到24.5%，在连续六个季度的下降之后，劳动力也停止了萎缩。

The labour reform in 2012 gave companies more flexibility to set wages and workingconditions themselves rather than through sector-wide bargaining, and cut severancepayments for unfair dismissals. Those changes, buttressed by a deal between unions andemployers, tempered wage growth that had far outstripped gains in productivity. How muchcredit do they deserve for the upturn in employment?

2012年的劳动改革给企业带来了更多的灵活性以确保工资和工作条件自身的稳定而不是通过全部门的谈判并削减对不公平解雇所分发的遣散费。这些变化是基于工会与雇主之间的交易，这种收入增长的调节大大领先于生产率的加强。但是就业情况的好转会为他们带来多少信用呢?

The answer may determine the political fate of Mr Rajoy, who defied street protests to pushreform through and faces a general election by the end of next year. The opposition SocialistParty claims that the number of unemployed has risen by more than 600,000 since Mr Rajoytook office in 2011, despite the reforms. Pedro Sanchez, the party's new secretary-general,promises to repeal them if it regains power.

这个答案或许会决定拉霍伊的政治命运。拉霍伊抵制街头抗议，强行推进改革，而明年年底西班牙大选在即。在野的社会党声称，尽管有改革，但是自从2011年拉霍伊先生上任以来，失业人数增加了至少60万。该党派的新任秘书长佩德罗·桑切斯承诺，如果该党重新上台，则会废除一切不利的改革政策。

That would be a mistake. Other factors contributed to the jobs recovery, especially the“whatever it takes” pledge by the European Central Bank two years ago to save the euro. Butreform played an important role, says Rafael Domenech, an economist at BBVA, a bank. Onepiece of evidence is that Spain is creating jobs at lower rates of GDP growth than before. Inprevious cycles, employment rose when growth hit 2%. This time the gain came during a yearwhen GDP expanded by just 1.2%.

而这看起来会是一个错误。其他的因素促成了就业复苏，尤其是两年前欧洲央行为了拯救欧元所作出的那个“不惜一切代价”的誓言发挥了极大的作用。然而在BBVA银行的经济学家拉斐尔·多梅内克看来，拉霍伊的改革却起到了至关重要的作用。支持这一说法的证据之一是，西班牙国内新增的就业机会所占国内生产总值的最低比重。在以前的经济周期中，当经济增长达到两个百分点的时候就业才会增长。而这一次在GDP仅仅增长一个百分点的时候就业就已经增长了。

To make a serious dent in unemployment, however, Spain will need to be more ambitious.Without further changes, the jobless rate will not dip below 20% until 2019, according to theIMF. The structural unemployment rate—the level reached when the economy is working atcapacity—is 18%, triple that of America.

然而，为了大力降低失业率，西班牙需要再加一把劲。据国际货币基金组织称，如果没有其他变革，直至2019年失业率也不会降低至百分之二十之下。而西班牙的结构性失业-即劳动力对经济变动的适应水平-已经达到百分之十八，是美国的三倍。

One problem is that many small companies (with ten workers or fewer) have not benefited fromgreater flexibility. That is because the process of opting out of sector-wide agreements can becumbersome. Such opt-outs could be made easier.

一个问题是，有许多小企业(只有十个员工甚至更少)并没有从更大的灵活性中收益。这是因为选择退出的全部门协议的过程会十分复杂。而事实上这一过程能变得更容易。

Another is that nearly a quarter of workers are still on temporary contracts. This is damaging,because they are much less productive than those with permanent jobs and employers donot invest in them. One way to encourage firms to hire permanent workers would be to cutseverance payments to the levels of other European countries.

另外一个问题是，近四分之一的工人仍然签着临时合同。这对就业稳定是毁灭性的的打击。因为比起那些有固定工作的人来说，这些临时工的效率更低，并且雇主也不愿意为这些临时工投资。相对于其它欧洲国家而言，而某种鼓励企业雇佣长工的做法会降低遣散费的水平。

Nor has much been done for the 3.5m people who have been jobless for more than a year, saysMarcel Jansen of Madrid's Autónoma University. Many are poorly educated: Spain has one of thehighest school drop-out rates in the OECD. Those with qualifications often find that they arenot the ones employers want.

据马德里自治大学的马塞尔·杨森成，至少350万人失业超过一年，并且其中的很多人都没受过多少教育：西班牙是OECD中辍学率最高的国家之一。而那些有学历的人常常发现他们并不是雇主想要雇佣的人。

The answers, says Mr Jansen, include spending more on retraining and overhauling state-runemployment offices, which do a poor job of matching workers' skills with local employers' needs.The government has tightened rules for people receiving unemployment benefit toencourage them to look for work or to take training courses. But they need to be effectivelyenforced.

詹森先生说，解决这些问题的办法要包括花费更多进行业务培训，并且还要整顿国营就业办公室，因为国营办公室在引导工人习得雇主所需技能方面做得并不好。政府已经用法规对那些领取失业津贴的人们进行束缚，并鼓励他们找工作或者参加培训课程。但是这些政策得有效执行才行。

The government could lower the cost of hiring workers by cutting social-securitycontributions, which are high by European standards. A rise in value-added tax could pay forthat. Others advocate lowering the minimum wage for unskilled workers.

政府可以通过削弱社会保障金来降低雇佣工人的费用，因为这个社保金水平的标准是根据欧盟标准所制定的。增值税的上涨会为此买单。而也有一些人主张用降低非技术工人的最低工资的方式来降低成本。

Mr Rajoy says he will not let up on reform until Spain's unemployment plague becomesmerely a “sad” episode in history. He has started talks with unions and employers on apackage of job-friendly measures, to be hammered out after the summer break. But withelections looming, few expect it to be bold.

拉霍伊表示，除非西班牙的大规模失业造就历史上绝无仅有的一个“绝望”时代，否则他不会减缓改革的脚步与力度。拉霍伊已经开始与工会和雇主就就业友好型措施的一揽子计划进行谈判，其结果将在夏休后一锤定音。但是随着西班牙大选的临近，几乎没有人希望这个改革可以莽撞继续下去。

【重点解析】

1.at last 最后;终于;最终

例句:At last Andrew gave them a crumb ofinformation.

最后，安德鲁向他们透露了一点信息。

2.start to 开始

例句:There has been a busy start to polling intoday's local elections.

今天地方选举的投票一开始就人头攒动。

3.working condition 工作情况;工作状况

例句:Remove all hoses and restore valve to original working condition.

拆卸所有软管,并将阀门恢复到原先的工作状态。

4.deserve for 应得