疫情下美国经济挑战加剧

AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. What contributes to the most to U.S. Gross Domestic Product?

阿祖兹:10秒琐事。什么对美国国内生产总值的贡献最大？

Government spending, Exports, Business investment or Consumer spending.

政府支出、出口、商业投资或消费者支出。

Consumer spending accounts for around 70 percent of America's GDP.

消费者支出约占美国GDP的70%。

Consumer spending, the goods and services people buy, that fluctuates throughout the year.

消费支出，即人们购买的商品和服务，全年都在波动。

For instance, during back-to-school season in August, sales of books, instruments and sports equipment usually increase.

例如，在8月份的开学季，书籍、仪器和运动器材的销售通常会增加。

This year though, with the ongoing effects of the COVID pandemic, production and consumer spending on new cars have been hurt microchip shortage we've reported on.

但今年，由于新冠肺炎疫情的持续影响，新车的生产和消费支出受到了芯片短缺的影响，这我们报道过。

As corona virus cases ramped up over the summer, people spent less money in restaurants and restaurants and retail companies are grappling with challenges of their own.

今年夏天，随着冠状病毒病例的增加，人们在餐馆的消费减少，餐馆和零售公司也在努力应对自己的挑战。

VANESSA YURKEVICH, cnn CORRESPONDENT: This is Astro. It works at Sergio's Restaurant in Miami on its feet 12 hours a day.

cnn记者凡妮莎·尤尔科维奇:这是阿斯特罗。它在迈阿密的塞尔吉奥餐厅一天工作12个小时。

CARLOS GAZITUA, CEO OF SERGIO'S RESTAURANT: a little crazy to do, but our employees once they saw it and felt it after two hours, they were like, wait a minute. We have something here.

塞尔吉奥餐厅的首席执行官卡洛斯·加齐图亚: 这样做有点疯狂，但我们的员工一旦观察到它并在两个小时后感觉到它，他们就会说，等一下。我们这里有东西供应。

YURKEVICH: Astro assists human staff here and in five other locations. The chain's CEO Carlos Gazitua hopes to have 12 soon. Astro is not just a novelty but a necessity, as Gazitua struggles to staff up.

尤尔科维奇：阿斯特罗在这里以及其他五个地方协助人类工作人员。这家连锁店的首席执行官卡洛斯·加齐图亚希望很快就能拥有12家连锁店。阿斯特罗不仅是一种新奇事物，而且是必需品，因为加齐图亚正在努力招募人员。

GAZITUA: The robot was to prevent burnout, having robots be personal assistants to our employees. Not taking away jobs but helping them is the sweet spot for our industry in the future.

加齐图亚:机器人是为了防止工作倦怠，让机器人成为我们员工的私人助理。不是抢走工作，而是帮助他们，这是我们行业未来的最佳选择。

YURKEVICH: That's because hiring in leisure and hospitality was flat last month. After clawing back from a record 8 million jobs lost, with restaurants and bars losing 42,000 jobs.

尤尔科维奇：那是因为上个月休闲和酒店业的招聘持平。在从创纪录的 800 万个工作岗位中恢复过来之后，餐馆和酒吧失去了42,000个工作岗位。

SEAN KENNEDY, NATIONAL RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION: The restaurant recovery is now moving in reverse.

美国国家餐馆协会肖恩·肯尼迪:餐饮业的复苏正在逆转。

We still have 90,000 restaurants that are closed permanently or long-term or about 1 million jobs below where we should be before this pandemic.

我们仍然有9万家餐馆永久或长期关闭，大约有100万个工作岗位低于疫情前的水平。

YURKEVICH: At Sergio's, the summer brought in fresh help, students.

尤尔科维奇：在塞尔吉奥餐厅，这个夏天带来了新的助手，学生。

GAZITUA: Those college students really helped us during that transition period, but unfortunately those students are gone already.

加齐图亚:在那个过渡时期，那些大学生真的帮了我们大忙，但不幸的是，那些学生已经离开了。

YURKEVICH: Leaving restaurants like his facing an intense labor shortage.

尤尔科维奇：像他这样的餐馆正在面临严重的劳动力短缺。

GAZITUA: I think it's almost like being stuck in the mud. You know, you take a step forward and you want -- you want to move your -- your other foot but it's very hard. That's where we are right now.

加齐图亚：我认为这几乎就像被困在泥沼里。你知道，你向前迈出一步，你想要——你想要移动你的——你的另一只脚，但这非常困难。这就是我们现在所处的位置。

YURKEVICH: In retail, the industry is taking steps backwards. About 1.3 million people quit retail jobs in just June and July, and in August of the 28,000 lost retail jobs most of it happened here.

尤尔科维奇：在零售业，这个行业正在后退。 仅在6月和7月，就有大约130万人辞去了零售业的工作。8月，在失去的2.8万份零售业工作中，大部分都发生在美国。

Do you think, oh, that makes sense? That's me.

你觉得，这说得通吗? 那就是我。

LOU SCADUTO, JR., CEO, FOOD CIRCUS SUPER MARKETS: Yes, that's -- that's what we're dealing with exactly is you're going to run into a hole on the shelf.

食品马戏团超级市场首席执行官卢·斯卡杜托:是的，这就是——这就是我们正在处理的问题，就是你会撞到货架的洞里。

You're going to run into a longer wait at the check-out or a longer wait at the deli counter.

你会在收银台或熟食柜台等得更久。

Our overall businesses require about 800 team members, we are right now about 680.

我们的整体业务需要大约800名团队成员，而我们现在大约有680名。

So, we have shut our deli departments down early, because we just don't have enough labor to staff it.

所以，我们提前关闭了我们的熟食部门，因为我们没有足够的劳动力。

YURKEVICH: He's tried raising wages. Has it worked?

尤尔科维奇：他试过提高工资。这奏效吗?

SCADUTO: Not great.

斯卡杜托：不是很好。

YURKEVICH: And this month, a new staffing challenge. President Biden announced businesses with more than 100 employees would be required to mandate vaccines or weekly testing. When you hear that initially as a business owner, what do you think?

尤尔科维奇：这个月，一个新的用人挑战。 拜登总统宣布，员工超过100人的企业将被要求强制接种疫苗或每周进行检测。 当你最初作为一个企业主听到这句话的时候，你会怎么想?

SCADUTO: You get scared. You do, because if we have to go out and mandate our team members to be vaccinated. They might walk out the door, and if they walk out the door that's going to make it that much more difficult for us to continue to operate.

斯卡杜托：你会害怕。 你需要，因为如果我们必须出去，要求我们的团队成员接种疫苗。 他们可能会离开这扇门，如果他们离开这扇门，这将使我们的运作继续变得更加困难。

YURKEVICH: Vanessa Yurkevich, cnn, Red Bank, New Jersey.

尤尔科维奇：cnn新闻，凡妮莎·尤科维奇新泽西州红堤报道。