As you are probably aware, the latest job markets news isn’t good: Unemployment is still more than 9 percent, and new job growth has fallen close to zero. That’s bad for the economy, of course. And it may be especially discouraging if you happen to be looking for a job or hoping to change careers right now. But it actually shouldn’t matter to you nearly as much as you think.
That’s because job growth numbers don’t matter to job hunters as much as job turnover(人员更替) data. After all, existing jobs open up every day due to promotions, resignations, terminations(解雇), and retirements. (Yes, people are retiring even in this economy.) In both good times and bad, turnover creates more openings than economic growth does. Even in June of 2007, when the economy was still moving ahead, job growth was only 132,000, while turnover was 4.7 million!
And as it turns out, even today — with job growth near zero — over 4 million job hunters are being hired every month.
I don’t mean to imply that overall job growth doesn’t have an impact on one’s ability to land a job. It’s true that if total employment were higher, it would mean more jobs for all of us to choose from (and compete for). And it’s true that there are currently more people applying for each available job opening, regardless of whether it’s a new one or not.
But what often distinguishes those who land jobs from those who don’t is their ability to stay motivated. They’re willing to do the hard work of identifying their valuable skills; be creative about where and how to look; learn how to present themselves to potential employers; and keep going, even after repeated rejections. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that 2.7 million people who wanted and were available for work hadn’t looked within the last four weeks and were no longer even classified as unemployed.
So don’t let the headlines fool you into giving up. Four million people get hired every month in the U.S. You can be one of them.
小题1:The author tends to believe that high unemployment rate ______.
A．discourages many people from landing jobs
B．prevents many people from changing careers
C．should not stop people from looking for a job
D．does not mean the U.S. economy is worsening小题2:Where do most job openings come from?
A．Job growth.
B．Job turnover.
C．Improved economy.
D．Business expansion.小题3:What does the author say about overall job growth?
A．It doesn’t have much effect on individual job seekers.
B．It increases people’s confidence in the economy.
C．It gives a ray of hope to the unemployed.
D．It doesn’t mean greater job security for the employed.小题4:What is the key to landing a job according to the author?
A．Education.
B．Intelligence.
C．Persistence.
D．Experience.小题5:What do we learn from the passage about the unemployment figures in the US?
A．They clearly indicate how healthy the economy is.
B．They provide the public with the latest information.
C．They warn of the structural problems in the economy.
D．They don’t include those who have stopped looking for a job.
