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.
美國的工人短缺致使一些公司投資機器來完成他們找不到人做的一些工作。
The companies have also been training workers to use new technology so they can produce more with less.
這類公司還一直在培訓工人用新技術，以便他們可以用更少的本錢生產更多的商品。
The result has been an unexpected increase in productivity, a measure of economic performance.
其結果是生產率出人意料地提升，這是衡量經濟表現的指標。
Productivity compares two sets of data: outputs and inputs.
生產率比較兩組數據：產出和投入。
Outputs are the goods and services produced, while the inputs are what is needed to create those goods and services.
產出是生產的產品和服務，而投入是創造這類產品和服務所需要的。
The productivity increase represents a change from the years before the COVID-19 pandemic years.
生產力的提升反映了疫情爆發前數年的變化。
Yearly productivity growth averaged around 1.5 percent, business advisory company RSM estimates.
商業咨詢公司RSM估計，年生產率平均增長約1.5%。
Things changed when the economy moved out of the 2020 recession.
當經濟走出2020年的衰退時，狀況發生了變化。
Businesses had difficulties bringing back the many workers they had lost.
企業非常難將失去的很多工人帶回來。
The resulting worker shortage sent pay higher.
隨之而來的工人短缺致使薪資上漲。
Inflation increased for a number of reasons.
通貨膨脹上升是什么原因有不少。
One was that factories and ports had problems meeting rising product orders while shipping slowed.
其一是，工廠和港口在滿足不斷增加的商品訂單方面遇見了問題，而運輸卻在放緩。
Shortages of parts were also reported.
據報道，零部件也出現了短缺。
Many companies turned to automation.
很多公司轉向智能化。
Investment in equipment and in research and development and other forms of intellectual property grew.
對設施、研發和其他形式的常識產權的投資有所增長。
The Associated press reports that the efficiency effects began to arrive almost a year ago.
美聯社報道稱，效率效應大約在一年前就開始顯現。
The U.S. government's Bureau of Labor Statistics reports on productivity.
美國政府勞工統計局發布了生產率報告。
The BLS released its most recent productivity numbers on February 1.
勞工統計局于2月1日發布了最新的生產率數據。
The bureau said: "Nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023."
該局表示：“2023年第四季度，非農業企業部門的勞動生產率提升了3.2%。”
Batesville Tool and Die is a company based in the Midwestern state of Indiana.
貝茨維爾模具公司是一家總部坐落于美國中西部印第安納州的公司。
Trying to keep up with customer demand, Batesville Tool and Die began looking for 70 people to hire last year.
為了跟上顧客的需要，貝茨維爾工具與模具公司去年開始招聘70人。
It was not easy.
這并困難。
Getting factory workers to move to a small community of 7,300 people in the Indiana countryside was difficult.
讓工廠工人搬到印第安納州農村一個只有7300人的小社區非常困難。
Job seekers were rare there.
在那里，求職者極少。
"You could count on one hand how many people in the town were unemployed," said Jody Fledderman, the company chief.
該公司首席實行官喬迪·弗萊德曼說，“你可以用一只手數出來鎮上有多少人失業。”
Batesville Tool and Die filled just 40 of its job openings.
貝茨維爾工具與模具公司只填補了40個職位空缺。
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.
但隨后，該公司投資了可以像人類工人一樣工作的機器和視覺系統，這能夠幫助其機器人“看到”他們在干什么。
Austan Goolsbee is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
奧斯坦·古爾斯比是芝加哥聯邦儲備銀行行長。
He has compared increasing productivity to "magic… for the economy…You can have faster income increases, faster wage growth, faster GDP without generating inflation.''
他將提升生產力比作“經濟的魔力。你可以在不產生通貨膨脹的狀況下獲得更快的收入增長、更快的薪資增長和更快的GDP。”
Joe Brusuelas is chief economist at RSM.
喬·魯埃拉斯是RSM的首席經濟學家。
He said, "The last time we saw anything like this was the late 1990s."
他說：“大家上一次看到這種情況是在20世紀90年代末。”
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.
布魯蘇拉說，當時生產力的提升——手提電腦、手機和網絡的忽然用帶來的早期結果——能夠幫助維持低借貸利率。
Inflation remained under control even as the economy and the job market were strong.
盡管經濟和就業市場表現強勁，但通脹仍在控制之下。
This time, the U.S. central bank has increased the interest rates it controls 11 times starting in March 2022.
這一次，美國從2022年3月開始，央行已將它控制的利率提升了11次。
That has played a part in easing inflation from a 40-year high of 9.1 percent to around 3.1 percent.
這在一定量上緩解了通貨膨脹，從40年來的最高點9.1%降至3.1%左右。
"I would have said it's not possible,'' said Sal Guatieri who is an economist at BMO Capital Markets.
蒙特利爾銀行資本市場的經濟學家薩爾·瓜蒂里說：“我會說這是不可能的。”
"But that's exactly what happened.''
“但這正是發生的事情。”
A year ago, many economists warned that a recession was very likely.
一年前，很多經濟學家警告稱，經濟大概陷入衰退。
Jerome Powell leads the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank.
杰羅姆·鮑威爾是美國聯邦儲備銀行主席。
Powell warned in 2022 that beating inflation would result in "some pain" in the form of widespread job losses and unemployment.
鮑威爾在2022年警告稱，戰勝通貨膨脹將致使“一些痛苦”，表現為大范圍的失業。
Last month, Powell said something different.
上個月，鮑威爾說了一些不一樣的話。
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."
伴隨失業率接近50年來的最低水平，鮑威爾告訴記者，“大家的勞動力市場很強勁，通貨膨脹率也在降低。”
He did warn that the central bank wants to see further progress in slowing inflation.
他確實警告說，央行期望在減緩通脹方面獲得進一步進展。
But the Fed is so optimistic that inflation is heading toward its two percent goal that it has not raised rates since July.
但美聯儲很樂觀，覺得通脹率正朝著2%的目的進步，自7月份以來就沒加息。
Some experts expect the central bank to cut its interest rates several times this year.
一些專家預計，央行今年將多次降息。
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.
在本月的一次媒體發布會上，鮑威爾被問到，他是不是覺得更高的生產率能夠幫助講解為何即便在通脹降低的狀況下，經濟仍維持增長。
"That's one way to look at it — yeah," Powell replied.
鮑威爾回答說：“這是一種看待問題的方法——是的。”
I'm John Russell.
我是約翰·拉塞爾。
重點詞語
shortages短缺不足缺少shortage的復數
United States美國美利堅合眾國依憲法而聯合起來的州的總稱
invest in投資到
some of中的一些其中一些其中的一些
new technology新科技
has been已經
increase in productivity生產力
economic performance經濟情況
compares比較對比與…類似將…比作表明…與…相似compare的第三人稱單數
outputs輸出產量輸出功率輸出量輸出output的復數