《中英對照讀新聞》More Koreans giving up looking for jobs 更多南韓民眾放棄謀職

◎茅毅

According to a survey on the working age population － those aged 15 or over － by Statistics Korea, the number of discouraged workers stood at 534,000 in December 2019, the month before the novel coronavirus first arrived in Korea.

根據南韓統計廳一項對工作年齡人口的調查，在新型冠狀病毒最早到達南韓前的2019年12月，15歲或以上的沮喪勞工（或稱失望勞工）人數為53萬4000人。

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Since the first case was reported here on Jan. 20, the tally of discouraged workers has showed a general increase, though there were some ups and downs from month to month. Compared to December 2019, the tally for November 2020 grew 97,000 to reach 631,000.

自南韓1月20日通報首起確診病例後，沮喪勞工的人數就已呈現普遍上升，儘管按月仍有若干波動。相較於2019年12月，2020年11月的人數增加9萬7000人，達63萬1000人。

Some research analysts say that the climbing number of discouraged workers cannot wholly be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.

部分的研究分析師表示，沮喪勞工人數的攀升，無法完全歸咎於2019冠狀病毒病大流行。

新聞辭典

discouraged：形容詞，灰心（沮喪、氣餒）的。例句：I felt discouraged because of all the criticism he’d received.（他挨了那麼多批評，令我心灰意冷。）

tally：名詞，紀錄、記數、記帳、比分。例句：Make sure to keep a tally of the number of customers going in and out.（務必要記錄進出的顧客人數。）

attribute：動詞，將…歸咎（因）於。例句：He died of a heart attack attributed to drugs and alcohol.（他死於肇因為吸毒與酗酒的心臟病。）