Men Hit Hardest by Job Losses
男性-----失业率最高的群体
Continental worker are demonstrating in France, autoworkers are demanding a rescue plan for Opel in the German city of Russelheim, while in New York and London bankers are clearing out their desks. They are the images of a crisis and the faces have one thing in common: They are almost all men.
法国工人示威游行活动如火如荼；德国欧宝汽车工呼吁改革呼声高涨；纽约和伦敦的银行家们也将面临失业危机。他们都是经济危机的受害者，并且都有一个共同点------他们几乎全是男性。
As the crisis continues unabated and the collapse of the global economy pushes up unemployment figures, one thing is becoming clear: The crisis is disproportionately affecting men. Almost 80 percent of the 5.1 million Americans who have lost their jobs in recent months have been men. The US male unemployment figure is now 8.8 percent, while it is still only 7 percent for women.
随着经济危机的持续加强以及全球经济的崩溃，失业人数不断上涨，同时我们也看清了一个事实：危机对男性造成了更严重的影响。在近几个月失业的510万美国人中，有近80%的失业者是男性。当前美国男性失业率为8.8%，而女性仅为7%。
The same is now happening in Germany where 55 percent of those registered as unemployed are men, and that is only going to increase. Male workers are more adversely affected by the current economic crises, explained Heinrich Alt of Germany’s Federal Employment Agency on Thursday as he presented the latest unemployment figures. The numbers speak volumes: While the unemployment rate for men in April increased by 12.4 percent compared to the same month last years, it actually decreased by 2.8 percent for women. More concretely: While almost 218,000 men lost their jobs, 46,939 women actually found one.
德国联邦就业局海因里·艾特于周四出示最新数据表明德国也面临了与美国相似的境况。德国登记在册的失业者中，有55%是男性，且该数据仍持续增加。也就是说当前的经济危机对男性更不利。数据显示：虽然四月份男性失业率与去年同期相比增加了12.4个百分比，但女性失业率却下降了2.8个百分比。更确切地说就是，每218000个男性面临失业的同时，每46939个女性实现就业。
“That is not really all that surprising; the reason is this economic crisis has been concentrated in the classic industrial sector, ” says Christian Dreger, head of Macro Analysis and Forecasting at the Berlin-based German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). The automobile industry in particular, including the businesses that supply the main carmakers, is shedding jobs. “And those are sectors that still employ more men,” Dreger says. Women tend to work more in the service sector. “And the crisis has had little or no impact there.”
柏林经济研究院宏观分析与预测部主任克里斯蒂安·德雷格表示：“男性遭受更严峻的失业危机并不令人惊讶，究其原因在于经济危机集中爆发于传统工业领域。其中汽车产业以及与其相关的其他产业失业现象尤为突出，而此类产业更倾向于雇佣男性员工，女性员工则倾向于活跃在未受经济危机影响的服务行业。”
Significantly higher number of men work than women do. According to the Federal Employment Agency, male employment is currently 81.6 percent while female employment is only 69.2 percent. Those who work more likely, therefore, to lose their job.
值得注意的是男性工作者人数比女性多得多。据联邦就业局统计：当前男性就业率为81.6%，女性就业率为69.2%。因此那些工作几率高的人，失业几率也高。
In addition it is mostly full-time positions that are being cut－and many women do not work a full 40-hour week. Around a third of employed women work part-time, while only 5.5 percent of working men are employed on a part-time basis. That means that women are more likely to work in low-paid jobs. The Federal Employment Agency says that 67.4 percent of those in low-paid jobs are women, who often work as carers in retirement homes, supermarket cashiers, child-minders or cleaners. These jobs may not be well paid but they are still required even in times of economic crisis.
此外，由于全职岗位正面临着消减，在40小时。在女性工作者中，约有1/3从事兼职工作，而男性兼职工作者仅占5.5%。这也就意味着女性大多从事低薪工作。联邦就业局指出女性占低收入人群的67.4%，她们通常从事养老院、超市收营员、育幼院、清洁等工作。尽管这些工作收入不高，但它们并不会收到经济危机的影响。
However, better-paid women are also doing well, such as those working in traditionally more female spheres like education or health. The major industries like construction, manufacturing or even the financial services industry have always been more vulnerable to economic cycles and therefore suffer when the economy dips.
然而，收入较高的女性工作也很出色，例如那些从事教育或医疗卫生等传统工作领域中的人。但诸如建筑业、制造业，乃至金融服务业等重要产业处于经济圈的薄弱环节，一旦经济下滑，它们也跟着遭殃。
“Women are also more flexible when it comes to location or type of job and they adapt more quickly, ”says Falk of the DGB. “If a woman realizes that she hasn’t got any more prospects somewhere then she tries to go somewhere else. It’s something we have experienced in eastern Germany in the past.” Many women from eastern Germany have in recent years left to go to western states, or even emigrated, in pursuit of job opportunities.
德国工会联盟主席福克表示：“女性对工作地点、工作类型的选择十分灵活，她们的适应性更强。根据我们过去在德国东部的工作经验，一旦一个女人意识到自己在某个职位上不会有太大的发展，她就会选择跳槽。”近年来，很多来自德国东部的女性，为了追求更好的工作机会，来到西方国家工作，甚至移居于此。
“In a society where services are becoming increasingly important, women quite simply have the better jobs,” says Hans Bertram, a sociologist at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Bertram is not at all surprised by the fact that it is men who are worst affected by the crisis. “That was historically always the case, for example when you look at the collapse of the steel and coal industries in the Ruhr industrial region,” he says. Unemployment has always been a part of life in an industrialized country, and belongs to the rhythm of industrial society. “As long as someone is young and strong, he can make good money as a construction worker. But once you are 35 and your body won’t cooperate any more, there are fewer prospects,” Bertram explains.
柏林洪堡大学的社会学家汉斯·伯特伦指出：“随着服务业在社会中变得日益重要，女性的工作条件也变得越来越好。”而对于男性受到经济危机影响更深的这样一个事实，伯伦特并不感到惊讶。他指出：“回顾历史，德国鲁尔区钢铁煤炭产业的衰败与今天所面临的困境如出一辙。”失业已经成为工业化国家密不可分的一部分，是工业化社会发展的产物。“年轻力壮的男子能够成为一名建筑工人并有一份好的收入，一旦年至35岁，身体不再强壮，便没有什么好的工作前景了”。
He thinks it unlikely that, for example, former Opel workers will simply retrain to work in the service sector. “You can’t turn a steel worker into a call center agent,” he says. The service industry usually requires higher qualifications and these are not easily acquired later on in life, he explains. “The change will only come with the generations,” Bertram says.“Perhaps young men will now more often decide against becoming a mechanic or a construction worker and instead opt to train as a nurse.”
伯特伦认为，让一名早期的汽车工人重新接受培训，再投身于服务业工作是不太可能的。也就是说:把一名体力劳动者改造成一名脑力劳动者是不太可能的。服务业通常要求具有高学历，而对于一些年龄较大的人来说获得这些学历并非那么容易。伯特伦还指出，也许随着时代的变迁，年轻男性更多时候会倾向于选择当一名护士，而不是机械工或者建筑工人。
