ON FEBRUARY 25th Rick Santorum, the second-ranking Republican presidential hopeful, calledPresident Barack Obama a snob for advisingeveryone to get themselves a college education.America, apparently, is a nation of snobs. In arecent poll 94% of parents said they expected theirchildren to go to college. And in January almost60% of Americans aged 16 to 24 were enrolled inone, an all-time high for that month.

　　2月25日，美國排名第二的共和黨總統候選人瑞克?桑托倫聲稱奧巴馬總統鼓勵每個人接受大學教育為勢利之舉。顯然，美國是勢利之國。最近一項投票顯示，94%的家長希望他們的子女能上大學。1月份，將近60%16-24歲的美國人被至少一所大學錄取，創造了空前的記錄。

　　Enrolment has been rising for decades, egged on by parents, presidents of both politicalstripes and the rising wage premium thatcollege graduates command. The recession added an extra kick. Enrolment rose from 57%in the 2007-08 academic year to 59% in 2010-11.

　　幾十年來，大學錄取率持續攀升，這不僅得益于學生家長、兩派總統們的大力支持，亦歸功于大學畢業生所得工資獎勵日益升高。經濟衰退增加了這一趨勢。錄取率由2007-08學年的57%上升至2010-11學年的59%。

　　Unemployment always hits the young particularly hard, reducing the opportunity cost ofgoing back to full-time education. An expansion of both federal Pell grants, from 5.5m in2007-08 to 9.6m in 2011-12, and of college tax credits has helped defray costs, which mayhelp explain why the share of students holding down jobs also dropped sharply after 2008.

　　失業總是對年輕人造成巨大的打擊，這也降低了重新接受全日制教育的機會成本。而聯邦佩爾獎學金以及大學課稅減免的額度亦大幅提升，可以用來支付開銷，前者更是由2007-08學年的550萬美金上升至2011-12年的960萬美金，這也很好地解釋了為什么08年以后仍堅持工作的學生的比例急劇下降。

　　This trend sheds light on one of the central mysteries of the recovery: why so many peoplehave left the labour force. The proportion of the working-age population that is working orlooking for work has fallen from 66% in 2007 to below 64% inJanuary. This has been an important part of the reduction in the headline unemploymentfigure. With fewer people entering the labour force, there are fewer job hunters to becounted as unemployed.

　　這一趨勢使得經濟復蘇最核心之謎浮出水面：人們放棄勞動之謎。2007年適齡勞動人口中工作或正在求職的比例為66%，而到了今年一月份，這一比例下降到了64%，這是占據報紙頭版頭條的失業率下降的主要原因。進入勞動力市場的人越少，被統計的求職人員也就越少。

　　The drop has been by far the largest among 16-to-24-year-olds; their participation rate hasdropped almost five percentage points since 2007. Alan Krueger, the chairman of Mr ObamasCouncil of Economic Advisers, reckons this can explain almost a third of the drop in theoverall participation rate.

　　目前，16-24歲的人群是參與率是下降最多的，2007年下降了將近5個百分點。奧巴馬政府的經濟顧問委員會會長阿蘭?克魯格估計這能解釋為什么總參與率下降了近1/3。

　　That puts a different spin on a trend most economists have seen in a drearier light. Theythought a lacklustre economy was suppressing participation by driving discouraged workersout of the labour market altogether, and that participation would rebound along with theeconomy. Mr Krueger agrees that part of the drop is due to lack of demand for labourbecause of the recession, but thinks something else is at work: the underlying trend inparticipation in the past decade has already been falling because of an ageing work forceand a downdrift in participation by women. It may tick up in coming years as the youngpeople now in college graduate. When they do, Mr Krueger notes, they will have more humancapital, which will, with luck, earn them higher wages and boost the economys overallpotential. Which would be all to the good, since they will have hefty student loans to repay.

　　這轉變了大多數經濟學家在不明朗的情勢下看到的趨勢。他們曾認為疲軟的經濟使得灰心喪氣的勞動者退出勞動力市場，從而壓制了參與率，經濟復蘇可以使得參與率回升。克魯格先生贊同這樣的觀點：經濟衰退降低了勞動力需求從而降低了參與率，但他認為這后面另有玄機：過去的十年里參與率已經有潛在的下降的趨勢，這時由于勞動力老齡化以及女性參與率下降造成的。不過在接下來的幾年里，參與率會由于現在讀大學生畢業而再度上升。克魯格先生還指出當這些大學生畢業后會擁有更高的人力資本，如果一切順利的話，他們將因此獲得更高的薪資，并促進經濟總體潛力的增長。這樣總得來說還是好的，因為他們須償還巨額貸款。

　　ON FEBRUARY 25th Rick Santorum, the second-ranking Republican presidential hopeful, calledPresident Barack Obama a snob for advisingeveryone to get themselves a college education.America, apparently, is a nation of snobs. In arecent poll 94% of parents said they expected theirchildren to go to college. And in January almost60% of Americans aged 16 to 24 were enrolled inone, an all-time high for that month.

　　2月25日，美國排名第二的共和黨總統候選人瑞克?桑托倫聲稱奧巴馬總統鼓勵每個人接受大學教育為勢利之舉。顯然，美國是勢利之國。最近一項投票顯示，94%的家長希望他們的子女能上大學。1月份，將近60%16-24歲的美國人被至少一所大學錄取，創造了空前的記錄。

　　Enrolment has been rising for decades, egged on by parents, presidents of both politicalstripes and the rising wage premium thatcollege graduates command. The recession added an extra kick. Enrolment rose from 57%in the 2007-08 academic year to 59% in 2010-11.

　　幾十年來，大學錄取率持續攀升，這不僅得益于學生家長、兩派總統們的大力支持，亦歸功于大學畢業生所得工資獎勵日益升高。經濟衰退增加了這一趨勢。錄取率由2007-08學年的57%上升至2010-11學年的59%。

　　Unemployment always hits the young particularly hard, reducing the opportunity cost ofgoing back to full-time education. An expansion of both federal Pell grants, from 5.5m in2007-08 to 9.6m in 2011-12, and of college tax credits has helped defray costs, which mayhelp explain why the share of students holding down jobs also dropped sharply after 2008.

　　失業總是對年輕人造成巨大的打擊，這也降低了重新接受全日制教育的機會成本。而聯邦佩爾獎學金以及大學課稅減免的額度亦大幅提升，可以用來支付開銷，前者更是由2007-08學年的550萬美金上升至2011-12年的960萬美金，這也很好地解釋了為什么08年以后仍堅持工作的學生的比例急劇下降。

　　This trend sheds light on one of the central mysteries of the recovery: why so many peoplehave left the labour force. The proportion of the working-age population that is working orlooking for work has fallen from 66% in 2007 to below 64% inJanuary. This has been an important part of the reduction in the headline unemploymentfigure. With fewer people entering the labour force, there are fewer job hunters to becounted as unemployed.

　　這一趨勢使得經濟復蘇最核心之謎浮出水面：人們放棄勞動之謎。2007年適齡勞動人口中工作或正在求職的比例為66%，而到了今年一月份，這一比例下降到了64%，這是占據報紙頭版頭條的失業率下降的主要原因。進入勞動力市場的人越少，被統計的求職人員也就越少。

　　The drop has been by far the largest among 16-to-24-year-olds; their participation rate hasdropped almost five percentage points since 2007. Alan Krueger, the chairman of Mr ObamasCouncil of Economic Advisers, reckons this can explain almost a third of the drop in theoverall participation rate.

　　目前，16-24歲的人群是參與率是下降最多的，2007年下降了將近5個百分點。奧巴馬政府的經濟顧問委員會會長阿蘭?克魯格估計這能解釋為什么總參與率下降了近1/3。

　　That puts a different spin on a trend most economists have seen in a drearier light. Theythought a lacklustre economy was suppressing participation by driving discouraged workersout of the labour market altogether, and that participation would rebound along with theeconomy. Mr Krueger agrees that part of the drop is due to lack of demand for labourbecause of the recession, but thinks something else is at work: the underlying trend inparticipation in the past decade has already been falling because of an ageing work forceand a downdrift in participation by women. It may tick up in coming years as the youngpeople now in college graduate. When they do, Mr Krueger notes, they will have more humancapital, which will, with luck, earn them higher wages and boost the economys overallpotential. Which would be all to the good, since they will have hefty student loans to repay.

　　這轉變了大多數經濟學家在不明朗的情勢下看到的趨勢。他們曾認為疲軟的經濟使得灰心喪氣的勞動者退出勞動力市場，從而壓制了參與率，經濟復蘇可以使得參與率回升。克魯格先生贊同這樣的觀點：經濟衰退降低了勞動力需求從而降低了參與率，但他認為這后面另有玄機：過去的十年里參與率已經有潛在的下降的趨勢，這時由于勞動力老齡化以及女性參與率下降造成的。不過在接下來的幾年里，參與率會由于現在讀大學生畢業而再度上升。克魯格先生還指出當這些大學生畢業后會擁有更高的人力資本，如果一切順利的話，他們將因此獲得更高的薪資，并促進經濟總體潛力的增長。這樣總得來說還是好的，因為他們須償還巨額貸款。