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  3. Summer’s unofficial end closed out a dark season for working teenagers. The unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds ticked

Summer’s unofficial end closed out a dark season for working teenagers. The unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds ticked

admin2012-07-05  21
问题     Summer’s unofficial end closed out a dark season for working teenagers.
    The unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds ticked up to 25.4% in August from 25% the previous month, the Labor Department said last week. For black teens, unemployment leaped to 46.5% from 39.2% in July. The nation’s jobless rate was unchanged at 9.1% .
    Equally worrisome: the jobless rate for teens of all races has hovered (徘徊) around 25% all summer each of the past three years, marking the worst such stretch on records back to 1948. Summer teenage unemployment averaged 13% in 2000 and 15.8% as recently as 2007.
    The prolonged recession has serious implications for America’s future adult workers. Summer jobs are critical for teaching youths "soft skills," such as how to deal with customers and managers, says Michael Saltsman, research fellow at the Employment Policies Institute.
    A 1995 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found high school seniors who worked 20 hours a week can expect to earn 21% more in annual salary and 11% higher hourly wages six to nine years later.
    Yet just 29.6% of all teens worked this summer, tying last year’s all time low. In 2000, more than half of teens worked.
    In a report last year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics cites several reasons for the long-term trend, including many teens in summer school and more high school graduates enrolling in college.
    Also, jobs traditionally held by teens, such as grocery cashiers and retail sales associates have been replaced by technology, Saltsman says. The recession accelerated the trend, with many teens losing out to laid-off workers with more experience in the hunt for low-level jobs.
    To help working youths, Saltsman says the federal government should give employers more flexibility to pay them as much as $ 3 below the minimum wage of $ 7. 25 an hour. Now, such a " training wage" can only be paid for 90 days.
    Saltsman cites a study by Miami and Trinity universities showing the increase in the rninimum hourly wage to $ 7. 25 from $ 5.15 from 2007 to 2009 reduced teenage employment nationwide by 2.5% , or 114,000 workers.
    Dean Baker, co-director for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, says Washington should revive job programs for low-income youths as part of an economic stimulus (刺激).
The Labor Department states that the unemployment rate for working teenagers______.
选项 A、has serious influence on the future of adult workers
B、has become worrisome since the year of 1948
C、is growing slowly after the year of 2000
D、increased from 25% in July to 25.4% in August
答案D
解析 事实细节题。根据原文“美国劳工部上周称，16岁至19岁青少年的失业率由上个月的25%上升至八月的25．4%”，可知D)含义与之吻合，故为答案。对美国未来的成年工作者的影响不属于劳工部发表的声明，故排除A)；原文指出同样值得焦虑的是过去三年的青少年就业率徘徊在25%左右，成为1948年记录以来最糟糕的一次，而并未说明青少年就业率从1948年开始就令人焦虑，故排除B)；原文并未指明从2000年开始青少年的失业率是怎样变化的，故排除C)。
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大学英语四级

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