紐時賞析／復興美國製造業 缺人問題難解

美國肯塔基州路易斯維爾一處生產銅製品的工廠正在作業。美國製造業缺工的現象不見好轉。（紐約時報）

Revive Manufacturing? Factories Can’t Fill Jobs Now

復興美國製造業 缺人問題難解

President Donald Trump’s pledge to revive American manufacturing is running into the stubborn obstacle of demographic reality.

美國總統川普振興本國製造業的承諾，正面臨一個頑固的現實障礙：人口結構。

The pool of blue-collar workers who are able and willing to perform tasks on a factory floor in the United States is shrinking. As baby boomers retire, few young people are lining up to take their place. About 400,000 manufacturing jobs are currently unfilled, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — a shortfall that will surely grow if companies are forced to rely less on manufacturing overseas and build more factories in the United States, experts say.

在美國，願意並有能力從事工廠作業的藍領勞動人口正在萎縮。隨着嬰兒潮世代退休，鮮少有年輕人願意接班。根據美國勞工統計局的數據，目前約有40萬個製造業職缺尚未填補。專家指出，若企業被迫減少對海外製造的依賴、並在美國興建更多工廠，這個人力缺口勢必會進一步擴大。

Difficulty attracting and retaining a quality workforce has been consistently cited as a “top primary challenge” by U.S. manufacturers since 2017, said Victoria Bloom, the chief economist at the National Association of Manufacturers, which produces a quarterly survey. Only recently has the issue slipped down on the list of challenges, superseded by trade-related uncertainty and increased raw material costs due to tariffs, Bloom said.

「吸引並留住優質勞動力」自2017年以來一直被美國製造商列爲「首要挑戰」，這是全美製造商協會每季調查的結果，該協會的首席經濟學家布魯姆如是表示。布魯姆指出，直到最近，這個問題纔在挑戰清單中略爲下滑，主要是被貿易相關的不確定性以及關稅導致的原物料成本上升所取代。

But the scarcity of skilled blue-collar workers remains a long-term problem, according to Ron Hetrick, an economist with Lightcast, a company that provides labor data to universities and industry.

然而，熟練藍領工人的稀缺仍是長期難題，根據提供勞動數據給大學與產業界的公司Lightcast 經濟學家赫特瑞克指出。

“We spent three generations telling everybody that if they didn’t go to college, they are a loser,” he said. “Now we are paying for it. We still need people to use their hands.”

「我們花了三代人的時間告訴大家：不上大學就是失敗者，」他說。「現在我們正在爲此付出代價。我們仍然需要有人動手做事。」

The hiring challenges faced by U.S. factories are multifaceted.

美國工廠面臨的聘僱困境是多方面的。

The president’s crackdown on immigration, which includes attempts to revoke deportation protections for migrants from troubled countries, may eliminate workers who could have filled those jobs.

總統對移民的打擊行動，包括試圖撤銷對來自動盪國家移民的遞解出境保護，可能會剝奪掉那些本可填補這些職缺的工人。

Many Americans aren’t interested in factory jobs because they often do not pay enough to lure workers away from service jobs that may have more flexible schedules or more comfortable working environments.

許多美國人對工廠工作並不感興趣，因爲這些工作往往無法提供足夠薪資來吸引服務業員工轉職，而服務業可能有更彈性的排班或更舒適的工作環境。

Attracting motivated young people to manufacturing careers is also a challenge when high school guidance counselors are still judged by how many students go on to college.

而要吸引有動力的年輕人投入製造業職涯，也面臨困難，尤其是在高中升學輔導老師仍被以送多少學生上大學作爲績效評量標準的情況下。

College graduates, on the other hand, often do not have the right skills to be successful on a factory floor.

另一方面，大學畢業生往往也不具備能在工廠順利工作的技能。

The country is flooded with college graduates who can’t find jobs that match their education, Hetrick said, and there are not enough skilled blue-collar workers to fill the positions that exist, let alone the jobs that will be created if more factories are built in the United States.

赫特瑞克指出，這個國家充斥着找不到與其學歷相符工作的畢業生，但卻缺乏足夠的熟練藍領工人來填補現有職位，更不用說未來若在美國新建更多工廠所需的額外人力了。

文／Farah Stockman　譯／國際中心

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