Unemployment insurance

失业保险

Inefficiencies bedevil America’s response to soaring joblessness

效率低下困扰着美国对失业率飙升的反应

America’s welfare system is creaking

美国的福利体系正在崩溃

 

May 16th 2020 |

EILEEN SHEPPARD has been cutting hair professionally for 20 years. Now 39, she lives in a small town in upstate New York, and lost her livelihood when Andrew Cuomo, the state’s governor, shut down hair salons and other personal-care businesses on March 20th. Millions have found themselves in a similar position, pushing America’s unemployment rate to an 80-year high (see left-side chart). As elsewhere, New York’s computer systems could not handle the rush of applications for unemployment insurance (UI). Ms Sheppard spent hours each day refreshing the site, which kept crashing and losing the information she had entered, while trying to care for her son, who was out of school (her husband was at his job hours away). She eventually managed to apply, but nearly two months after she lost her job she has received no money—just a letter with further application instructions.

EILEEN SHEPPARD作为一名专业理发师已经20年了。现年39岁的她住在纽约州北部的一个小镇上。3月20日，纽约州州长Andrew Cuomo关闭了发廊和其他个人护理业务，这让她失去了生计。数以百万计的人发现自己处于类似的境地，将美国的失业率推到了80年来的最高点(见下方左图)。与其他地方一样，纽约的计算机系统无法处理大量失业保险申请【(UI)】。SHEPPARD  女士每天都要花好几个小时来更新这个网站，但这个网站一直在崩溃，她输入的信息也反复丢失，同时她还要照顾失学的儿子(她的丈夫几小时前还在上班)。她最终成功申请了，但在失业近两个月后，她没有收到任何钱——只是一封附有进一步申请说明的信。

So rapid a rise in unemployment would stress any country’s UI system. Some, such as Britain’s, have coped surprisingly well. America’s has not. The federal government funds the administration of these benefits through grants tied in part to how much each state paid in UI claims in the previous year. America’s long economic expansion left its system woefully underfunded. So although the weekly $600 top-up that Congress approved in late March is nominally generous, millions of people have not had their money. Preliminary data analysed by The Economist suggest that up to 15m Americans who applied for UI in March and April had not received money by the start of May.

如此迅速的失业率上升会对大部分国家的失业保险制度造成压力。但有些国家，【不翻译】。美国却并不。联邦政府通过赠款资助这些福利的管理，部分取决于每个州在前一年支付的失业保险申请索赔金额。美国长期的经济扩张导致其金融体系资金严重不足。因此，尽管国会在3月底批准的每周600美元的增资计划名义上是慷慨的，但仍有数百万人没有拿到钱。《经济学人》分析的初步数据显示，截至5月初，在3月和4月申请失业保险的美国人中，有多达1500万人没有拿到钱。

Compounding these administrative problems are looming political battles. The $600 booster expires at the end of July. Worries that America’s UI system is too generous and discourages work are growing on the right.

使这些行政问题复杂化的是迫在眉睫的政治斗争。600美元的应急款将在7月底耗尽。顾虑美国的失业保险制度过于慷慨，以至于越来越多的美国人工作热情遭到打击。

词汇

Administrative/管理的，行政的

Like much else in America, UI is less one system than dozens, held together with some federal glue. It is intended to replace a share of lost wages while a recipient looks for work. Democrat-run states in the north-east tend to be more generous than Republican-run southern states, but overall, pre-pandemic America had perhaps the rich world’s stingiest system. The average payout in 2019 was equivalent to about 40% of previous earnings. Tough rules ensured that only those diligently seeking work would be granted welfare, and payouts were strictly time-limited.

就像美国其他地方一样，失业保险申请与其说是一个系统，还不如说是几十个系统，它们是用联邦政府的胶水粘在一起的。它的目的是让收款方在找工作的期间弥补一部分损失的工资。民主党控制的东北部州往往比共和党控制的南部州更慷慨，但总的来说，在流感大流行之前，美国的医疗体系可能是富裕国家中最吝啬的。2019年的平均支付额相当于之前收益的40%左右。严格的规定确保只有那些勤奋工作的人才能获得福利，而且发放的时间也有严格的限制。

 

Now America may have the world’s most generous system. Work-search requirements have been waived—rightly so, since people should be at home rather than pounding the pavement—and states have extended time limits on payouts. Workers deemed ineligible for ordinary UI, because they are self-employed, business owners or have an irregular work history, can now apply for benefits. And the extra $600 a week means that some can expect a hefty pay rise (see right-side chart). Goldman Sachs, a bank, estimates that three-quarters of laid-off workers are in line to receive benefits that exceed their former wage. Payments may be slow to arrive, but workers will in theory receive back-pay when their claims are finally processed.

【不翻译，我不相信这句话】。找工作的要求已经被抛弃了——的确该这么做，因为人们应该呆在家里，而不是在人行道上游荡——各州也延长了支付的时间限制。被认为不符合普通失业补助申请的工人，因为他们是个体经营者、企业主或有不正规的工作历史，现在可以申请救济。另外，每周600美元的额外收入意味着一些人可以期待大幅加薪(见右侧图表)。据高盛银行估计，四分之三的下岗工人将获得超过他们以前工资的福利。工资可能会延迟发放，但理论上讲，当他们的要求最终得到处理时，工人们会收到补发的工资。

词汇

Ineligible/  不合格的；不适任的

The creation of some odd economic incentives was, to an extent, unavoidable. The states’ UI systems are archaic, relying on programming languages devised as long ago as 1959, making it impossible to tailor payouts more sharply. Hence the flat $600-a-week boost, which is, roughly, the difference between the national average weekly wage in 2019 ($970) and the average unemployment payout that year ($370). Giving some workers more money than they had earned in a job may not be the best use of public resources, but the people who benefit most are likely to be among America’s poorest. And the money thus “wasted” (about $80bn, on the highly unrealistic assumption that 30m workers are on the programme for an entire year) would amount to just 3% of America’s total fiscal stimulus.

在某种程度上，产生一些奇怪的经济刺激是不可避免的。美国的失业保险申请系统非常陈旧，依赖于早在1959年就设计出来的编程语言，因此不可能对支出进行更大幅度的调整。因此，每周600美元的工资增幅与2019年全国平均周薪(970美元)和当年平均失业补贴(370美元)之间的差距大致相当。给一些工人比他们在一份工作中挣到的更多的钱可能不是对公共资源的最佳利用，但受益最多的人可能是美国最贫穷的人。而由此“浪费”的资金(约800亿美元，基于一种极不现实的假设，即有3000万工人一整年都在该计划中)将仅占美国财政刺激总额的3%。

Back to work

返工

Anyone hoping to game the benefits system is likely to be disappointed. Regulations are designed to foil people who quit a job in order to pick up an unemployment cheque. Having to quarantine because of household illness or care for a dependant with covid-19 will not cause anyone to lose their UI; refusing to work out of a general fear of illness will. Some reopening states, including Iowa, Ohio and Texas, encourage employers to report workers who refuse a job offer, disqualifying them from benefits.

任何希望玩弄福利制度的人都可能会失望。法规的目的是挫败那些为了领取失业支票而辞职的人。因家庭成员患病而需隔离或者需照顾感染新冠病毒的患者的工人不会因此失去失业补助资格;但有些人出于对疾病的普遍恐惧而拒绝工作。一些重新开放的州，包括爱荷华州、俄亥俄州和德克萨斯州，鼓励雇主举报拒绝工作的工人，使他们失去福利。

词汇

Quarantine/检疫隔离期；隔离

Dependant/受扶养者，依赖他人生活的人

 

Some economists want the government to do more to encourage employers to reduce working hours rather than laying people off—especially useful when businesses are allowed to reopen but face weak demand. With such programmes, explains Annelies Goger of the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, workers “don’t get the message that they’ve lost their jobs. They get the message that things are on pause.” Just over half of American states have short-term-work programmes, with UI covering the lost hours, but take-up had been low. Since the pandemic began take-up has increased, and Michigan has expanded its programme; workers in the schemes remain eligible for supplemental benefits. Katharine Abraham at the University of Maryland points to research suggesting that merely raising employers’ awareness of such programmes could make a big difference.

一些经济学家希望政府采取更多措施鼓励雇主减少工作时间，而不是裁员——这在企业获准重新开业但需求疲弱的情况下尤其有用。智库布鲁金斯学会的Annelies Goger解释说，有了这样的模式，工人们“不会得到失业的信息”。他们得到的信息是，事情处于暂停状态。超过一半的美国州有短期工作计划，失业保险覆盖了损失的工作时间，但使用率一直很低。自流感大流行开始以来，接受治疗的人数有所增加，密歇根州也扩大了其计划;参加该计划的工人仍有资格获得补充福利。马里兰大学(University of Maryland)的Katharine Abraham指出，一项研究表明，仅仅提高雇主对此类计划的认识，就可能意义非凡。

Another option would be to prolong the more generous unemployment system past July. Michael Bennet, a Democratic senator from Colorado, has proposed extending the current level of federal UI until the public-health emergency ends, and then gradually reducing benefits. But at some point such payouts will hinder the economic recovery, in particular the reallocation of workers from declining sectors to up-and-coming ones. Some research has indicated that a reduction in unemployment benefits in 2014-15 helped kick-start America’s pre-pandemic jobs boom.

另一种选择是将更为慷慨的失业制度延长至7月份以后。来自科罗拉多州的民主党参议员迈克尔•班纳特(Michael Bennet)提议，将目前的联邦医疗保险延长至公共卫生紧急状况结束，然后逐步减少福利。但在某种程度上，这样的支出将会阻碍经济复苏，尤其是阻碍工人从衰退行业向复苏行业的重新分配。一些研究表明，2014-15年失业救济的减少帮助开启了美国大流行前的就业热潮。

词汇

kick-start/刺激；提供初始动力

Most probably, the unemployment system will return to its pre-pandemic ways sooner rather than later. Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator, has said the $600-a-week programme would be extended “over our dead bodies”. The economy is reopening and bosses are looking for workers. Congressional Republicans have pressed for broader protections for employers, similar to those given by President Donald Trump to the meat industry, which would shield them from liability for covid-related deaths provided they follow minimum federal safety standards. Democrats may reluctantly fall in line in exchange for more state and local aid in the next round of relief. Before long, many American workers will face unpalatable choices. 

最有可能的是，失业体系迟早会恢复到大流行前的状态。共和党参议员Lindsey Graham表示，这项每周600美元的计划将“掩盖我们的【】”。经济正在恢复，老板们正在寻找工人。国会的共和党人敦促对雇主提供更广泛的保护，类似于 Donald Trump总统对肉类行业的保护，如果雇主遵守最低联邦安全标准，就可以免于承担与新冠病毒相关的死亡责任。民主党人可能不情愿地同意在下一轮救援中提供更多的州和地方援助。不久之后，许多美国工人将面临难以接受的选择。