奥巴马演讲 美国就业趋势转好1
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody.
AUDIENCE: Good morning.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me just — please, everybody, have a seat — have a seat. It is wonderful to be here. And I want to make a couple of quick acknowledgments（感谢，致谢） . This guy behind me, you may know him — he’s the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden. (Applause.) Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor, Anthony Brown, is here. (Applause.) Got the mayor of Hyattsville, William Gardiner. (Applause.) And, of course, we’ve got to acknowledge the big man here — (laughter) — and he is big. (Laughter.) Owner of K Neal International, Stephen Neal. (Applause.)
Now, I want to thank K Neal for having us here today, giving us a quick tour and having us look at all these — all these trucks. (Laughter.) This is a business that has been selling commercial trucks for over 40 years. This company employs workers from all over the greater Washington area. After two years of recession that caused so much pain in so many communities, this is also an example of a company that is starting to see business pick up again.
I was talking to Stephen and he told me that rental（租赁的） and lease（出租） sales have improved, that there’s a pent-up demand out there for new equipment and you’ve added workers over the last few months. And Stephen said if things keep on going well, he’ll add more in the months ahead.
We’re hearing more and more stories like that all across America. A lot of businesses were hit hard during this downturn, but they’re starting to hire again. Workers who were laid off, they’re starting to get their jobs back. Companies that were almost forced to close their doors are making plans to expand and invest in new equipment.
And this progress is reflected in the monthly jobs reports that we get each month. We received one today. In May, the economy added 431,000 jobs. (Applause.) Now, this is the fifth month in a row that we’ve seen job gains. And while we recognize that our recovery is still in its early stages and that there are going to be ups and downs（盛衰，沉浮） in the months ahead — things never go completely in a smooth line — this report is a sign that our economy is getting stronger by the day.
Now, I want to emphasize that most of these jobs this month that we’re seeing in the statistics represent workers who’ve been hired to complete the 2010 census（人口普查） . So these are temporary jobs that are only going to last until the fall, and that may be reflected in future jobs reports. But even if you put those temporary jobs aside, there’s no doubt that we saw another month of private sector job growth. And that is obviously critical because when businesses are hiring again, people start spending again. That, in turn, gives businesses more and more incentiv（动机，刺激） to grow.
Now, this doesn’t mean that the recession is over for the millions of Americans who are still out of work, or the millions more who are still struggling to make ends meet（收支相抵，量入为出） . No words, no statistics, can take away the pain and the anxiety that a family feels because of this downturn. That can only be relieved with a steady paycheck and the security that a steady job brings.What these numbers do mean, though, is that we’re moving in the right direction. The economic policies that we put in place are working. An economy that was shrinking at a scary rate when I was sworn in as President has now been growing for three consecutive quarters. We were losing 750,000 jobs a month during the winter of last year. We’ve now added jobs for six out of the last seven months.
The taxpayer money it cost to shore up（支持，加固） the financial sector and the auto industry is being repaid. I know it was unpopular, but it was the right thing to do. And both GM and Chrysler — (applause) — both GM and Chrysler are adding shifts and operating at a profit, which nobody would have imagined just a year ago.
The question now is, how do we keep this momentum going? How do we keep adding jobs, raising incomes? How do we keep growing not just our economy but growing our middle class?
In the short-term, we have to keep creating the conditions for companies like K Neal to succeed, to keep growing, to keep hiring. Because of a bill I signed into law a few months ago, businesses are now eligible for tax cuts for hiring unemployed workers. Companies are also able to write off more of their investments in new equipment. And as part of health reform, 4 million small businesses recently received a postcard in their mailbox telling them that they will be eligible（有资格的） for health care tax cuts this year and that those tax cuts could be worth tens of thousands of dollars to those companies. (Applause.)
I’ve also urged Congress to cut more taxes for small businesses and pass a Small Business Lending Fund, so that small businesses can get the incentives（奖励） and the credit that they need to create jobs and grow. I believe it’s absolutely critical that we extend unemployment insurance for several more months, so that Americans who’ve been laid off through no fault of their own get the support they need to provide for their families and they can maintain their health insurance until they’re rehired. And we should provide further support so that states are not cutting back on jobs and vital services, as well as incentives to create clean energy jobs.