Reinventing Workers for the Post-COVID Economy

The nation’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic will hinge ( ) to some extent ( ) on how quickly show managers can become electricians ( ), whether taxi drivers can become plumbers ( ), and how many cooks can manage software for a bank.

This is likely to prove especially problematic for millions of low-paid workers in service industries like retailing ( ), hospitality ( ), building maintenance and transportation, which may be permanently impaired ( ) or fundamentally transformed. What will janitors ( ) do if fewer people work in offices? What will waiters do if the urban restaurant ecosystem never recovers its density ( )?

Their prognosis ( ) is bleak ( ). Marcela Escobari, an economist at the Brookings Institution, warns that even if the economy adds jobs as the coronavirus risk fades ( ), “the rebound won’t help the people that have been hurt the most.”

Looking back over 16 years of data, Escobari finds that workers in the occupations ( ) most heavily hit since the spring will have a difficult time reinventing themselves. Taxi drivers, dancers and front-desk clerks have poor track records moving to jobs as, say, registered nurses, pipe layers or instrumentation technicians.

COVID is abruptly ( ) taking out a swath ( ) of jobs that were thought to be comparatively ( ) resilient ( ), in services that require personal contact with customers. And the jolt ( ) has landed squarely on workers with little or no education beyond high school, toiling ( ) in the low-wage service economy.

“The damage to the economy and particularly to workers will probably be longer lasting than we think it is going to be,” said Peter Beard, senior vice president at the Greater Houston Partnership, an economic development group.

What’s more, he said, COVID will intensify underlying ( ) dynamics ( ) that were already transforming ( ) the workplace. Automation ( ), for one, will most likely accelerate ( ) as employers seek to protect their businesses from future pandemics

The challenge is not insurmountable ( ). Yet despite scattered ( ) success stories, moving millions of workers into new occupations remains an enormous ( ) challenge.

“We need a New Deal ( ) for skills,” said Amit Sevak, president of Revature, a company that hires workers, trains them to use digital tools and helps place them in jobs. “President Roosevelt deployed ( ) the massive number of workers unemployed in the Great Depression on projects that created many of the dams ( ) and roads and bridges we have. We need something like that.”

勞工轉型以因應後疫情時代經濟

美國經濟能否從新型冠狀病毒影響下復甦，將在一定程度上取決於表演經理們要多久才能變成電工，計程車司機能否化身為水管工，以及有多少廚師能替銀行管理軟體。

這對零售業、餐旅業、建築維修和運輸業等服務業數百萬低薪工人來說，問題恐怕特別大。這些行業可能受到永久性損害或發生根本性改變。若辦公室裡人變少了，工友要做什麼呢？若都市餐廳生態系統繁盛不再，服務生又該如何？

他們的前景是黯淡的。布魯金斯學會經濟學家Marcela Escobari警告說，即使就業機會隨新型冠狀病毒疫情風險消退而增加，「經濟反彈也幫不了那些受創最重的人」。

Escobari檢視16年來的數據發現，今春以來受衝擊最大的一些職業，勞工將很難自我改造。計程車司機、舞者和櫃檯人員轉行從事護理師、舖管工或儀器技工等工作者十分有限。

新型冠狀病毒突然帶走了一大批原本被認為較不容易永久消失的工作，即需與客戶面對面接觸的服務工作。這一衝擊直接打擊到那些僅受過高中教育、在低薪服務經濟區塊中掙扎的勞工。

經濟發展組織大休士頓商會資深副總裁Peter Beard表示：「經濟、尤其是勞工們受害的時間，可能比我們預期的還要更長。」

他說，更重要的是，新型冠狀病毒疫情將強化已經在改變職場的潛在動力，自動化即為一例，由於雇主力求讓自己的企業未來不受大疫情影響，自動化極可能加速。

這項挑戰並非不能克服。然而，儘管有少數成功的例子，讓數百萬勞工轉業仍是巨大的挑戰。

雇用勞工後培訓他們使用數位工具，並幫他們找到工作的Revature公司總裁Amit Sevak說：「我們需要一項針對職業技能的新政。小羅斯福總統大蕭條時期把大量失業勞工投入工程計畫，興建了我們現在使用的水壩、道路與橋樑。我們需要這樣的東西。」

#高雄人 #學習英文 請找 #多益達人林立英文
#高中英文 #成人英文
#多益家教班 #商用英文
#國立大學外國語文學系講師

跟著怡琳看世界 35

Scotland to trial a four-day week
蘇格蘭試行每週工作四天

trial 試用/試驗
wage 工資
make good on 兌現承諾
productivity 生產力
draw on 以此借鑑
think tank 智庫
hospitality 接待服務產業
supposedly 據說

Scotland announced plans to trial a four-day work week, making it the latest nation to join the trend as more others explore the possibility of a permanent switch. Workers will see hours reduced by 20% without any impact to wages, Forbes reported.
蘇格蘭宣布計畫試行每週工作四天，讓蘇格蘭成為最新加入這個趨勢的國家，有越來越多國家在探索永久轉換的可能性。根據富比士報導，在不影響工資下，勞工的工作時間將減少20%。

The Scottish National Party (SNP) is making good on a campaign promise to try and reduce worker hours in a bid to boost productivity and worker happiness. Spain, New Zealand, Japan and Iceland have previously adopted a four-day work week – experience that Scotland will draw on as it implements its own trial.
蘇格蘭民族黨(SNP)正在兌現競選承諾，嘗試減少工時來提高生產力和勞工幸福感。西班牙、紐西蘭、日本和冰島先前都採用每週工作四天-蘇格蘭將在實施自己的實驗時借鑑此一經驗。

A poll conducted by Scottish think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that 83% respondents preferred to work for fewer days than they do now. For employers? It's maybe not so attractive.
蘇格蘭智庫公共政策研究所(IPPR)，進行的一項民意調查發現，83%的受訪者傾向於比現在更少的工作天數。至於雇主呢?可能沒這麼吸引人。

Rachel Statham, senior researcher at IPPR, explained that trials needed to be expanded and held in different sectors such as retail, tech, and hospitality to see how each coped with it. Expansion of the shorter work week should also be studied in different job markets such as the police, health workers, and those running on longer shifts.
IPPR資深研究員Rachel Statham解釋，試驗也要在零售、科技和接待服務產業等不同領域擴大和展開，來了解每個領域如何應對。並且應該就不同的就業市場，如警察、醫療工作者和輪班時間較長的人，研究縮短每週工作時間。

The shift to fewer hours supposedly boasts a number of benefits, including increased productivity, great sense of value and overall better attitude among workers.
減少工作時間據說會帶來許多好處，包含提高生產力、強烈的價值觀和員工整體上更好的態度。

資料來源
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-58403087
https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/scotland-four-day-work-week-trial
https://www.dw.com/en/four-day-work-week-a-mixed-success/a-59091672

製作完David Graeber《狗屁工作》的說書影片後 https://youtu.be/bQUEpQ09pAc ，其中一個論點得到許多共鳴：「對社會有貢獻的基層工作，收入普遍偏低，而對社會貢獻很少的狗屁工作，收入卻很高」。

先釐清一下，收入高的狗屁工作並非毫無貢獻，而是「對整體社會」沒有實質貢獻，例如書裡提到專門打擊對手的公司法務、煩人的股票電話銷售員、華而不實的廣告後製、濫發貸款的銀行家...等等，這些人當然能為企業帶來收益，否則公司不會聘他們，但這些人都投書說自己的工作對社會多數人沒貢獻卻可以領高薪，實在不合理，這才是作者想要表達的。

另一方面，談到收入低的基層工作時，有一派人會反駁：基層工作很多人都可以做，所以老闆才給低薪，因為你不想做，很多人排隊等著做，一切都是供需法則，沒人逼你工作啊！

疫情發生後剛好讓我們有機會檢驗這套說法，現在歐美國家的基層工作出現非常嚴重的缺工現象，人們發現生命短暫、不該浪費時間為資本家賣命，因此勞力市場供給極少、需求多，那麼市場應該會調高薪水來搶稀少的勞工吧？但事實上卻並非完全如此。

近期美國奧瑞岡的麥當勞主管把時薪提高到15美金後，就更改策略，把工作年齡下修到14歲(註1)，俄亥俄州的漢堡王也開始應徵14歲童工(註2)，總之就是不願意提高工資，還有阿拉巴馬的店家直接關閉內用，改成只做外送服務，因為這樣就不用調高薪水聘人了(註3)。更別說醫護人員現在簡直是真的在「賣命」工作，人手也缺到爆炸，但他們的薪水增加了多少？ 如果即便是現在這種找不到基層員工的疫情下，薪資都沒有增加了，疫情結束後，基層勞工的待遇還有可能得到重視嗎？歡迎基層勞工在底下留言，你們的薪水在目前疫情缺工的情況下有增加嗎？增加的幅度合理嗎？

不可否認供需法則對市場價格有一定影響，但是我們也不該否認「薪資的調整權力掌握在資方手上」這個簡單的事實，例如最近在德州，某家連鎖炸雞店老闆就開5萬美金年薪應徵20多歲年輕主管，並誠實地說「要維持利潤，我最多能開到這麼高」(註4)。資方可以調高薪水，只是他們要不要做而已。

「假使有天早上，地球上所有人來醒，全體停止從事狗屁工作，決定去創造一點別的東西，那資本主義就不存在了。」— David Graeber

註1:
https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-trying-to-hire-teens-with-labor-shortage-2021-8?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sf-bi-main&fbclid=IwAR3JP76f9KjhbJuaAaMvJSr82TbY2S0D6xk2qKziWM6oTp36Yxw4OfE8G2M
註2:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9955077/McDonalds-Burger-King-locations-hiring-14-year-olds-amid-dire-labor-shortage.html
註3:
https://www.businessinsider.com/chick-fil-a-restaurants-alabama-labor-shortage-closed-dining-rooms-2021-8?r=US&IR=T
註4:
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/fast-food-retail-labor-shortage-teenagers-managers-wage-laynes-texas-2021-6