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Worker shortages in the United States have led some companies to invest in machines to do some of the work they cannot find people to do.[qh]
美国的劳动力短缺导致一些公司投资于机器，以完成一些他们找不到人来做的工作。[qh]
The companies have also been training workers to use new technology so they can produce more with less.[qh]
这些公司还一直在培训工人使用新技术，这样他们就可以用更少的人力生产更多的产品。[qh]
The result has been an unexpected increase in productivity, a measure of economic performance.[qh]
其结果是生产率出人意料地提高。生产率是一种衡量经济表现的指标。[qh]
Productivity compares two sets of data: outputs and inputs.[qh]
生产率比较两组数据：产出和投入。[qh]
Outputs are the goods and services produced, while the inputs are what is needed to create those goods and services.[qh]
产出是指生产的产品和服务，而投入是指创造这些产品和服务所需的要素。[qh]
The productivity increase represents a change from the years before the COVID-19 pandemic years.[qh]
生产率的提高与2019冠状病毒病大流行前的年份有所不同。[qh]
Yearly productivity growth averaged around 1.5 percent, business advisory company RSM estimates.[qh]
商业咨询公司RSM估计，年生产率平均增长约1.5%。[qh]
Things changed when the economy moved out of the 2020 recession.[qh]
当经济走出2020年的衰退时，情况发生了变化。[qh]
Businesses had difficulties bringing back the many workers they had lost.[qh]
企业很难将失去的许多工人带回来。[qh]
The resulting worker shortage sent pay higher.[qh]
随之而来的工人短缺导致工资上涨。[qh]
Inflation increased for a number of reasons.[qh]
通货膨胀上升的原因有很多。[qh]
One was that factories and ports had problems meeting rising product orders while shipping slowed.[qh]
其一是工厂和港口难以满足不断增加的产品订单，而航运却放缓了。[qh]
Shortages of parts were also reported.[qh]
据报道，零部件也出现了短缺。[qh]
Many companies turned to automation.[qh]
许多公司转向自动化。[qh]
Investment in equipment and in research and development and other forms of intellectual property grew.[qh]
对设备、研发和其他形式的知识产权的投资增加。[qh]
The Associated Press reports that the efficiency effects began to arrive almost a year ago.[qh]
美联社报道说，效率效应大约一年前就开始显现了。[qh]
The U.S. government's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports on productivity.[qh]
美国政府的劳工统计局(BLS)发布了生产率报告。[qh]
The BLS released its most recent productivity numbers on February 1.[qh]
劳工统计局于2月1日发布了最新的生产率数据。[qh]
The bureau said: "Nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023.[qh]
统计局表示：“2023年第四季度，非农企业部门的劳动生产率增长了3.2%。" [qh]
Batesville Tool & Die is a company based in the Midwestern state of Indiana.[qh]
贝茨维尔工具和模具公司是一家总部设在中西部印第安纳州的公司。[qh]
Trying to keep up with customer demand, Batesville Tool & Die began looking for 70 people to hire last year.[qh]
为了跟上客户的需求，贝茨维尔工具与模具公司去年开始招聘70人。[qh]
It was not easy.[qh]
这并不容易。[qh]
Getting factory workers to move to a small community of 7,300 people in the Indiana countryside was difficult.[qh]
让工厂工人搬到印第安纳州郊区一个只有7300人的小社区很困难。[qh]
Job seekers were rare there.[qh]
在那里，求职者很少。[qh]
"You could count on one hand how many people in the town were unemployed," said Jody Fledderman, the company chief.[qh]
公司负责人乔迪-弗雷德曼谈到：“一只手就能数出来镇上有多少人失业。”[qh]
Batesville Tool & Die filled just 40 of its job openings.[qh]
贝茨维尔工具与模具公司只填补了40个职位空缺。[qh]
But then the company invested in machines that could work like human workers and in vision systems, which helped its robots "see" what they were doing.[qh]
但后来，该公司投资开发了能像人类工人一样工作的机器，以及帮助机器人 “看清 ”自己在做什么的视觉系统。[qh]
Austan Goolsbee is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.[qh]
奥斯坦·古尔斯比是芝加哥联邦储备银行行长。[qh]
He has compared increasing productivity to "magic...[qh]
他将提高生产率比作“魔术”。[qh]
For the economy.[qh]
对于经济而言。[qh]
You can have faster income increases, faster wage growth, faster GDP without generating inflation.[qh]
在不产生通货膨胀的情况下，收入增长可以更快，工资增长可以更快，国内生产总值增长也可以更快。[qh]
Joe Brusuelas is chief economist at RSM.[qh]
乔·布鲁苏埃拉斯是RSM的首席经济学家。[qh]
He said, "The last time we saw anything like this was the late 1990s." [qh]
他说：“我们上一次看到这样的情况是在20世纪90年代末。[qh]
At that time, Brusuelas said, a productivity increase — an early result from the sudden use of laptops, cellphones, and the internet — helped keep borrowing rates low.[qh]
布鲁苏拉说，当时生产率的提高--这是笔记本电脑、手机和互联网突然使用的早期结果--有助于将借款利率保持在较低水平。[qh]
Inflation remained under control even as the economy and the job market were strong.[qh]
尽管经济和就业市场表现强劲，但通胀仍在控制之下。[qh]
This time, the U.S. central bank has increased the interest rates it controls 11 times starting in March 2022.[qh]
这一次，美国央行从2022年3月开始11次上调其控制的利率。[qh]
That has played a part in easing inflation from a 40-year high of 9.1 percent to around 3.1 percent.[qh]
这在一定程度上缓解了通胀，使通胀率从 40 年来的最高点 9.1%降至 3.1%左右。[qh]
"I would have said it's not possible,'' said Sal Guatieri who is an economist at BMO Capital Markets.[qh]
“我会说这是不可能的，”蒙特利尔银行资本市场的经济学家萨尔-瓜蒂耶里说。[qh]
"But that's exactly what happened.'' [qh]
“但这确实是正在发生的事情。”[qh]
A year ago, many economists warned that a recession was very likely.[qh]
一年前，许多经济学家警告说，经济很有可能陷入衰退。[qh]
Jerome Powell leads the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank.[qh]
杰罗姆·鲍威尔领导着美国联邦储备银行。[qh]
Powell warned in 2022 that beating inflation would result in "some pain" in the form of widespread job losses and unemployment.[qh]
鲍威尔曾在 2022 年警告说，战胜通胀会带来 “一些痛苦”，表现为大范围的失业和减员。[qh]
Last month, Powell said something different.[qh]
上个月，鲍威尔说了一些不同的话。[qh]
With unemployment near a 50-year low, Powell told reporters, "We've had a very strong labor market, and we've had inflation coming down." [qh]
随着失业率接近50年来的最低点，鲍威尔对记者说：“我们有一个非常强劲的劳动力市场，我们的通胀已经下降。”[qh]
He did warn that the central bank wants to see further progress in slowing inflation.[qh]
他确实警告说，央行希望看到在减缓通胀方面取得进一步进展。[qh]
But the Fed is so optimistic that inflation is heading toward its two percent goal that it has not raised rates since July.[qh]
但美联储非常乐观，通胀率正朝着2%的目标前进，自7月以来就没有加过息。[qh]
Some experts expect the central bank to cut its interest rates several times this year.[qh]
一些专家预计，央行今年将多次降息。[qh]
At a news conference this month, Powell was asked whether he believed higher productivity helps explain why the economy has kept growing even while inflation has fallen.[qh]
在本月的一次新闻发布会上，鲍威尔被问及他是否认为较高的生产率有助于解释为什么经济在通胀下降的情况下仍保持增长。[qh]
"That's one way to look at it — yeah," Powell replied.[qh]
鲍威尔回答说：“这是看待这件事的一种方式。”[qh]
I'm John Russell.[qh]
我是约翰·拉塞尔。[qh]
