help: passage5?

Passage 5 (5/63)

How many really suffer as a result of labor market problems? This is one of the most critical yet contentious social policy questions. In many ways, our social statistics exaggerate the degree of hardship. Unemployment does not have the same dire consequences today as it did in the 1930’s when most of the unemployed were primary breadwinners, when income and earnings were usually much closer to the margin of subsistence, and when there were no countervailing social programs for those failing in the labor market. Increasing affluence, the rise of families with more than one wage earner, the growing predominance of secondary earners among the unemployed, and improved social welfare protection have unquestionably mitigated the consequences of joblessness. Earnings and income data also overstate the dimensions of hardship. Among the millions with hourly earnings at or below the minimum wage level, the overwhelming majority are from multiple-earner, relatively affluent families. Most of those counted by the poverty statistics are elderly or handicapped or have family responsibilities which keep them out of the labor force, so the poverty statistics are by no means an accurate indicator of labor market pathologies.

Yet there are also many ways our social statistics underestimate the degree of labor-market-related hardship. The unemployment counts exclude the millions of fully employed workers whose wages are so low that their families remain in poverty. Low wages and repeated or prolonged unemployment frequently interact to undermine the capacity for self-support. Since the number experiencing joblessness at some time during the year is several times the number unemployed in any month, those who suffer as a result of forced idleness can equal or exceed average annual unemployment, even though only a minority of the jobless in any month really suffer. For every person counted in the monthly unemployment tallies, there is another working part-time because of the inability to find full-time work, or else outside the labor force but wanting a job. Finally, income transfers in our country have always focused on the elderly, disabled, and dependent, neglecting the needs of the working poor, so that the dramatic expansion of cash and in-kind transfers does not necessarily mean that those failing in the labor market are adequately protected.

As a result of such contradictory evidence, it is uncertain whether those suffering seriously as a result of labor market problems number in the hundreds of thousands or the tens of millions, and, hence, whether high levels of joblessness can be tolerated or must be countered by job creation and economic stimulus. There is only one area of agreement in this debate—that the existing poverty, employment, and earnings statistics are inadequate for one their primary applications, measuring the consequences of labor market problems.

33-39 line 就是划线部分。 多谢！

这是什么题？能不能把33－39标志出来。

6。Finally, income transfers in our country have always focused on the elderly, disabled, and dependent, neglecting the needs of the working poor, so that the dramatic expansion of cash and in-kind transfers does not necessarily mean that those failing in the labor market are adequately protected.

Thank you! After I signed the part, I gradually understand question 8, I think. Plz see if I 'm right;

the mentioned "forced idleness" refers to "unemployment".  Just as "at different times during the year, different people are unemployed", so people who lose jobs today may find other jobs several days later, however, such people should be also regarded as "people who suffer as a result of forced idleness " on the one hand, on the other hand, this kind of human resource change does not significantly affect the number of people employed in any month. In short, "number of people who suffer as a result of forced idleness depends primarily on the point that" number of people who really lose jobs no matter how soon they will find other jobs.

8. 我确定不了。觉得问题很模糊。D也许有道理，我可能会懵A。

那句话的意思应该是有些有工作的人在某些月份没事干，等于没工作，比如季节性工作或暂时下岗。

所以说joblessnees, forced idleness, 没说unemployed。

请大牛们讨论吧。

(C) those in forced idleness include, besides the unemployed, both underemployed part-time workers and those not actively seeking work

The passage does not mention "those not actively seeking work", so this

choice is unrelated.

or else outside the labor force but wanting a job.

说的就是这个意思。those not actively seeking work。

但是这部分和问题那部分是并列。