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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  105
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    Also, jobs traditionally held by teens, such as grocery cashiers and retail sales associates have been replaced by technology, Saltsman says.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).
What does "the long-term trend" (Line 1, Para. 7) refer to?
选项 A、More high school graduates will be enrolled by colleges.
B、The unemployment rate for working teenagers will remain high.
C、More jobs traditionally held by teens will be replaced by technology.
D、The recession will make more teens end up with losing their jobs.
答案B
解析 语义理解题。long-term与第四段中第一句The prolonged recession has…中的prolonged意思相近，其中the是特指，指代上文中的内容。联系其上文“Equally worrisome：the jobless rate for teens of all races has hovered around 25% all summer each of the past three years…”，在过去三年的每个夏季，所有种族青少年的失业率一直徘徊在25％左右以及劳工部声称青少年工作者失业率的增长，可知其指的是青少年失业率居高不下的形势，B)含义与之吻合，故为答案。更多的高中生被大学录取是造成这种趋势的原因，故排除A)；传统上由青少年从事的工作被科技所取代，也是造成这种趋势的原因，故排除C)；原文指出经济的萧条更加速了这个趋势的走向，故排除D)。
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