双语学习（带音频）：就业增长慢，总统压力大（1/2）

摘要：The August job numbers mark the 30th month of private-sector job growth, but just barely. Experts say the economy needs to add at

中文标题:就业增长慢，总统压力大(1/2)

英文标题:Poor US Job Numbers Play Key Factor

原文:

The August job numbers mark the 30th month of private-sector job growth, but just barely. Experts say the economy needs to add at least 100,000 new jobs each month just to keep up with population growth.

Economist Marcus Schomer at Pinebridge Investments called the latest job report underwhelming.

"The non-farm payroll number 96,000, that was quite disappointing. I was looking for a much stronger increase. In fact, my forecast was 175,000."

So what happened? Schomer believes the job numbers reflect growing uncertainty over the country's economic direction.

"It is the uncertainty over taxes, the uncertainty over spending, the uncertainty over politics, the uncertainty over Congress and I think that's exactly what's holding back business activity, business sentiment and at the end of the day, it's holding back hiring."

With less than nine weeks to go before Americans head to the polls, the sluggish job market could hurt President Barack Obama's re-election chances.

Michael K. Farr is head of an investment firm in Washington and has written several books on surviving the economic downturn. He says the latest job numbers could be problematic for the president.

翻译:

八月份的就业数据标志着私营企业的就业增长已经持续了三十个月，但增幅甚微。专家说每月至少要增加十万个就业岗位，这样才能使经济增长跟上人口增长。

来自柏瑞投资的经济学家马克斯•斯科莫声称最新的就业报告反响平平。

“非农业就业人数是96000，这着实令人失望。我一直想看到一个更强有力的增长。事实上，我原来的预测是175000。”

那么到底发生了什么呢？斯科莫认为就业数据反映了本国经济发展大方向上日益增加的不确定性。

“税收的不确定，开销的不确定，政治的不确定，国会的不确定——我认为正是这些不确定因素拖了商业活动和商业信心的后腿，到最后，它们又阻碍了招聘。”

距离美国选民投票还有不到九周的时间，疲软的就业市场可能会对巴拉克•奥巴马连任不利。

迈克尔•K•法尔是华盛顿一家投资公司的老板，他写过几本关于如何捱过经济衰退的书。他说最新的就业数据可能给总统带来麻烦。

注解: 【词汇&词组】

1）underwhelming （响应或反应）不热烈的

例句：He met with underwhelming applause.

他得到的掌声并不是很热烈。