【北京中产阶层标准】纽约中产阶层难过失业关

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纽约市的高失业率正在从最贫困的社区向一度安全的中产阶级住宅区中扩散，这里的一些居民已开始拖欠租金和按揭贷款。
High unemployment is spreading in New York City beyond the poorest neighborhoods to once-secure middle-class enclaves, where some residents are falling behind on rent and mortgage payments.
　　
其中受打击最为严重的地区包括北部的布朗克斯区和东南部的皇后区。据无党派研究机构财政政策研究所称，这两个地区自2007年第三季度以来的失业率已经翻了一番。
Among the hardest-hit spots are the northern Bronx and southeastern Queens. Both areas have seen unemployment double since the third quarter of 2007, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
　　
该研究所副主任、首席经济学家帕罗特说，劳动力市场的复苏还有很长的路要走，中等收入社区还要等待漫长的时间。
"The recovery in the labor market is a long way off and it will be a long time coming to middle-income neighborhoods," said James Parrott, the institute"s deputy director and chief economist.
　　
帕罗特说，接近一半的纽约人都在中小型企业工作，它们在低迷中并不容易复苏。
Close to half of all New Yorkers work for small and medium-size businesses, Mr. Parrot said, "and they don"t readily recover in a downturn."
　　
纽约市自2008年8月以来已经减少了14.4万个就业岗位，截至11月份的失业率达到了10%。
New York City has shed 144,000 jobs since August 2008, leaving it with an unemployment rate of 10% as of November.
　　
布朗克斯区由于存在大量公房住宅、教育水平较低和大量非熟练工人，长期以来它一直是纽约市失业率最高的地区。
The Bronx, with its big public-housing complexes, lower education levels and large unskilled population, long has had the highest unemployment rate in the city.
　　
该研究所说，布朗克斯区第三季度的失业率为13%。但该研究所发现，在居住大量中产和工薪家庭的最北面靠近Westchester县的地区，失业率为12.2%，比两年前增加了一倍多。
In the third quarter, the Bronx"s jobless rate was 13%, the institute said. But in the northernmost stretch, populated by middle- and working-class families, bordering Westchester County suburbs, unemployment was 12.2% in the third quarter, more than double the rate of two years earlier, the institute found.
　
居民、城市官员和经济学家说，今年布朗克斯区北部地区丧失赎回权的情况更多，小企业倒闭、非法出租卧室和地下室、房东向法院起诉追讨租金的事件也增多了。
Residents, city officials and economists said there have been more foreclosure cases this year in that northern part of the Bronx, as well as an increase in small-business closings, illegal renting of bedrooms and basements, and court petitions by landlords seeking back rent.
　　
46岁的餐厅员工拉姆斯登租住在布朗克斯北部诺伍德社区，2008年6月以来他一直在寻找全职工作。他一直为将英语作为第二语言的人授课，但自7月份以来就一直没有足够的钱支付他公寓的租金。他的房东已经开始了驱逐程序。
Restaurant employee Gregory Ramsden, a 46-year-old renter in the Norwood neighborhood of the north Bronx, has been looking for full-time work since June 2008. He has been teaching classes in English as a second language, but hasn"t had enough money to pay the rent on his apartment since July. His landlord has begun eviction proceedings.
　　
作为一名全职侍者，他过去一年收入5万美元，是该地区的中值收入。拉姆斯登说，什么事情我都做。我会接受打扫厕所的工作。我觉得我已经别无选择了。
"I"d take anything. I"d take a job cleaning toilets," said Mr. Ramsden, who, as a full-time waiter, used to make $50,000 a year, the area"s median income. "I believe I"m running out of options."
　　
在皇后区的东南部地区，几代家庭通过首次置业步入了中产阶层，这里的失业率在过去两年翻了一番，达到了12.2%。
On the southeastern strip of Queens, where generations of families have entered the middle class by buying starter homes, unemployment has doubled in the past two years to 12.2%.
　　
据纽约大学弗曼房地产和城市政策中心说，2008年该地区共发生了1,800多起房屋止赎，而截至今年第三季度共发生了1,589起。
In 2008, there were more than 1,800 foreclosure cases filed in the area, and 1,589 filed as of the third quarter of this year, according to the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University.
　　
当地居民说，该地区的空置房屋造成了垃圾的非法倾倒、更多的鼠害和入室盗窃。当地一个社区理事会的区域经理雷迪克说，出现了不少非法入住者。
Residents said vacant homes in the area -- known largely as Jamaica -- have attracted illegal dumping, more rodents and break-ins. "You"ve got squatters going in," said Yvonne Reddick, district manager of a community board for the area.
　　
无党派研究机构城市未来中心发现，2002年至2007年期间，纽约人的食品、住房和水电费成本大幅上升，而曼哈顿以外地区的工资却停滞不前。
The Center for an Urban Future, a nonpartisan think tank, has found that food, housing and utility costs for New Yorkers rose significantly between 2002 and 2007 while wages in boroughs other than Manhattan stagnated.
　　
该研究机构主任鲍尔斯说，纽约人步入中产阶层的道路已经变得困难得多了。
"The path into the middle class has gotten a lot harder for New Yorkers," said Jonathan Bowles, director of the think tank.

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