美企裁员潮下部分民众深陷财务困境 白领失业危机或引发衰退

For these Americans, the recession is already here

据美国有线电视新闻网7月3日报道，受美联储数月来持续加息影响，美企争相削减成本、裁员难止，部分失业民众深陷财务困境。专家预测，更多美国人可能陷入这种困境。跨国投资银行集团杰富瑞高级经济学家托马斯·西蒙斯表示，“2023年企业仍将重点放在削减成本上，这将导致更多人失业”。他表示，如果更多美国人因失业而被迫削减开支，可能会使美国经济陷入衰退。

Wall Street bankers, investors and economists have for months waffled over whether a US recession is coming. But for some Americans, the unforgiving economic pain typical during recession has already set in.

几个月来，华尔街银行家、投资者和经济学家还不确定美国经济衰退是否即将到来。但对于一些美国民众来说，经济衰退期典型的财务噩梦已经开始显现。

Al Brown and his fiancée faced a tough call in May when reviewing their weekly budget: What’s a higher priority, more food or dish soap?

艾尔·布朗和他的未婚妻今年5月在做每周预算时面临一个艰难的决定： 更多的食物还是洗洁精，哪个才是是更优先的事项？

Based in Concord, North Carolina, Brown was the main breadwinner for his fiancée and their two children. Then in April, he was let go from his job as a global director of business development at software company Cascade.

布朗住在北卡罗来纳州康科德，是他的未婚妻和两个孩子的主要经济支柱。然后在四月份，他被软件公司 Cascade解雇，他的职务是该公司全球业务开发总监。

He’s since quit his gym membership and sold miscellaneous items around his home, including a computer and yard furniture, to make ends meet. His 13-year-old son quit the basketball team.此后，他取消了健身房会员卡，并出售了家里的电脑和庭院家具等各种物品，以维持开销。他13岁的儿子退出了篮球队。

Brown, 37, now spends his days scouring the internet for jobs or reaching out to potential connections. After filing over 600 applications, only a handful have produced interviews, he says. That’s a far cry from the labor-market strength depicted in government figures.

37 岁的布朗现在每天都在互联网上寻找工作或接触潜在的人脉。他说，在提交了 600 多份求职申请后，只收到了一小部分的面试机会。这与美国政府公布的数据中显示的美国劳动力市场表现相差甚远。

Investors and economists have been expecting a recession since last year as the Fed raised interest rates to tame inflation. That triggered companies to focus on profitability over growth, which meant cutting spending and reducing their workforces.

自2022年以来，随着美联储加息以抑制通胀，投资者和经济学家一直预计美国经济将出现衰退。这促使企业更关注盈利而非企业发展，大力削减支出和裁员。

Tens of thousands of layoffs have resulted since. Some of those laid-off workers have been able to land on their feet. Others haven’t been as lucky.

此后，数以万计的员工被解雇。其中一些被解雇的员工恢复了正常生活但另一些人就没那么幸运。

Nina McCollum, 54, was laid off from her writing gig at jobs site Glassdoor back in March. She hasn’t found a new role since, despite applying to hundreds of jobs.

今年3月，在招聘网站 Glassdoor 从事写作工作的54 岁的尼娜·麦科勒姆于被解雇。自那以后，尽管她申请了数百份工作，但仍没有找到新的职位。

She’s been living off her savings, selling her blood plasma and frequenting food pantries just to get by — all while taking care of a teenage son. Her domestic partner helps out, but he can’t make up for her lost income.

她一直靠积蓄生活，甚至靠卖自己的血浆、经常光顾食物银行来勉强度日，此外，她还要照顾一个十几岁的儿子。

“I think it’s unlikely that I will get another good paying job with great benefits like the one I had,” McCollum, who lives in Cleveland, Ohio, said.

住在俄亥俄州克利夫兰的麦科勒姆说：“我认为我不太可能找到另一份像我以前那样薪酬福利不错的工作。”

More Americans are likely to enter this predicament, some experts predict.

一些专家预测，更多的美国人可能会陷入这种困境。

As we go through 2023, “and into next year, there is still going to be this focus on trying to reduce costs, and it is going to result in more unemployment,” said Thomas Simons, a senior economist at Jefferies.

跨国投资银行集团杰富瑞高级经济学家托马斯·西蒙斯表示，“2023年企业仍将重点放在降低成本上，这将导致更多人失业”。

The impact of layoffs, currently concentrated among white-collar workers, will reverberate throughout the economy through a “big pullback in overall spending,” Simons said. Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of economic output, so if more Americans are forced to cut back because they were laid off, that might throw the US economy into a recession.

西蒙斯表示，目前裁员的影响主要集中在白领群体。这将导致“整体支出的大幅缩减”，从而影响到美国经济发展。消费者支出约占经济产出的三分之二，因此，如果更多的美国人因失业而被迫削减开支，这可能会使美国经济陷入衰退。

编译：董静、李蕙帆（实习）