Leaving Workers in the Lurch

You are going to read a magazine article about unemployment. Eight paragraphs have been removed from the article. Choose from the paragraphs A-l the one which fits each gap (14-20). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Unemployment

Simple steps to get organized.

Getting organized in the office is simple. It just takes discipline so that things don't pile up.

When you receive a piece of pa­per, an e-mail, voice mail or verbal request, immediately decide to:

►Discard, if it's junk or some­ thing you never will need.

►Delegate, if it's something you can forward or assign to someone.

►Take immediate action, if it's yours to take care of and needs to be responded to.

►File for follow-up, if it doesn't need immediate attention but definitely needs to be done.

►Put it in a reference file, if you'll need it in the future.

In your daily grind:

►Break large projects down into small, sequential steps.

►Keep only supplies you need on a daily basis on your desktop.

►Be clear about the response you need when sending a message.

►Keep a master list of file names to use when deciding where to file a piece of paper.

►Set aside a certain amount of time once or twice a day to check and respond to e-mails.

►If you don't have to answer your phone every time it rings, let voice mail do some of the work.

In your files:

►Keep a file labeled for each day with things that need to be done.

►At day's end, pull out the next day's file and prioritize tasks.

►In the morning, pull out the first task and start to work on it

►Move anything not accomplished to the next day's folder.

E-mail is another major hurdle in organization and time manage­ment, say organizers.

Most people deal with e-mail as soon as they arrive at work, which is the worst thing to do.

Get a few critical things done first thing before you check your e-mail. Because those are so distracting it can just really derail your whole day.

A key to being organized is deter­mining what time you are most productive, whether that's at the end of the day, right after lunch or first thing in the morning.

Schedule your most important task of the day then.

And when the day is overcheck the next day's cal­endar to prioritize your schedule.

Source: Simply Organizing, Simplified Spaces, Nation­al Association of Professional Organizers

Is unemployment a problem in your country? How easy is it for young people to find suitable work?

What advantages and disadvantages does technology bring to the world of work?

The growth of the global economy is leaving millions of workers behind. Inequality, unemployment and poverty are all signs of this. Rapid technological change and heightened international competition are damaging the job mar­kets of the major industrialised coun­tries.

1) F

This is not how things were supposed to work. The failure of capitalism to dis­tribute wealth fairly poses a challenge not just to politicians, but to economists as well. Despite a continuing boom in international trade and finance over the past decade, productivity has decreased, while inequality in the United States and unemployment in Europe have increased.

2)

Another case is Germany, where the rate was below 1 per cent; today it is approaching 10 per cent. In Belgium, the unemployment rate has quadrupled over the past 20 years.

3)

One of these puts the blame on devel­oping countries, or rather our relation­ship with them. Historically, developing countries provided the industrial world with raw materials in exchange for manufactured goods.

4)

Some economists assert that technolo­gy must be responsible for these changes. According to this school of thought, the introduction of new tech­nology such as computers creates a surplus of unskilled labour. At the same time, the new technology creates a demand for skilled workers who know how to run it.

5)

A final explanation is immigration. The legal immigration of skilled workers actually helps the economy as it sup­plies talents that are needed, creates businesses and jobs, and raises output.

6)

It seems that retraining workers would be the key to solving the problem of unemployment and unequal pay, but the trouble is that while more training programmes are needed, there is less and less money available to fund them. Governments are being forced to cut back on their spending in order to compensate for reduced production and income.

7)

The starting point for any positive policy would be to make it each nation's goal to improve the lives of its citizens. This means that economic policies should be structured so that working people can earn a living wage.

8)

A In Western Europe, the unemployment figures are frightening. In France, the average unemployment rate between 1969 and 1973 was 2.5 per cent; today it is over 11 per cent.

B However, the number of people it takes to operate a computer is far lower than the number needed to assemble a car, for example. This again means that there is less and less for workers to do.

C One major solution to the problem is the development of technology. This is creating new businesses, and therefore new jobs, at a startling rate in several of the more developed countries.

D Even the former Soviet Union is being forced to change its public spending policies as it tries to adjust to a cap­italist economy. So although training programmes and the creation of new jobs are the obvious solutions, the 'money is not available to fund them.

E Of course, each country has unique problems for which the right mixture of solutions will have to be found. These efforts will be more effective if they are pursued as part of an International effort. Without such co-operation, some countries will prosper at the expense of their neighbours.

F At the same time, various pressures are limiting governments' ability to respond to the crisis. Just when work­ers need help most, the state is failing them.

G Nowadays over 50 per cent of such goods, from clothing to consumer electronics, are produced by these coun­tries. The reason for this is that labour is cheaper in developing countries, with the result that workers in devel­oped countries have less and less to do.

H On the other hand, the pool of unskilled labour has also increased, forcing down wages. The immigrants' pres­ence has also created an environment which is conducive to crimes of hate, as is already evident in parts of Western Europe.

I The Europeans have created a lost generation of workers and are now suffering from it in terms of increased: crime, drug abuse, violence against immigrants, and the increasing popularity of extremist political groups. The big question is why it is happening. Three basic explanations of the problem have been suggested.

2) Look at the following words in the text and try to explain them:

growth, global, inequality, poverty, rapid, heightened, industrialised, wealth, poses, rate, raw materials, labour, immigration, skilled, supplies, retraining, reduced, policy, goal, structured

3) Fill in the appropriate word(s) from the list below:

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