奥巴马医改和就业

In the political close-combat before the Affordable Care Act took effect in January, a major criticism of the health insurance program was that it would spur employers to cut workers' hours, and perhaps even act as a "job-killer." The concern was that companies would shift people out of full-time jobs into part-time positions to avoid a financial penalty for failing to offer coverage to any employee who works at least 30 hours a week.

政治近距离战斗中，“平价医保法”在一月生效之前，针对健康保险计划的批评在于，他会激励雇主削减工人的工作时间，而且可能甚至会变成“工作杀手”。这种担忧在于公司会将全职工作都转向兼职工作，从而避免因为没有为所有一周工作至少30小时的员工提供保险而交罚金。

Such fears appear to have been unwarranted.

这种担心似乎已经是毫无根据的了。

Data out from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the percentage of Americans in full-time jobs rose last year, while the share of part-time workers fell. Nearly 73 percent of working-age men and 61 percent of women worked in full-time, year-round jobs in 2013, higher than the estimated 71 percent and 59 percent who did so the previous year.

美国人口统计局的数据显示，美国全职工作的人口比例较去年上升，而兼职工作的人反而下降了。2013年，将近73%的男工薪阶层和61%的女人都去干全职全年的工作了，前年预计只有71%和59%，都有所上升。

If companies had been cutting workers' hours or hiring more part-timers, experts note, the share of people in part-time jobs should have increased over the last year. It hasn't.

如果公司已经削减了工人的工时，而雇佣更多兼职员工，专家提到，兼职工作的人口比例应该已经较去年上升了。但是并没有。

"There's little evidence to date that health reform has caused a shift to part-time work," writes Paul Van de Water, a health care expert with the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in an analysis of the latest Census numbers.

“至今没有什么证据显示，健康制度的改革引起了兼职工作的变动，”预算和优先政策自由主义中心的卫生保健专家——保罗·凡·沃特在最近的人口普查数据分析中写道。

The share of U.S. employees in part-time jobs who would rather work full-time didn't decline only last year -- it has been falling throughout the recovery that followed the Great Recession. In 2009, the year the recovery officially began, 6.3 percent of workers reported being in involuntary part-time employment. By this year, that figure has fallen to just over 5 percent, economists Dean Baker and Helene Jorgensen of the Center for Economic and Policy Research note in a recent study.

美国那些更愿意做全职的兼职工作的雇员比例并没有下降，只在去年——在经济大衰退的复苏中有所下降。在2009年，官方所认定的经济复苏的开端年，6.3%的工人被报道在做非自愿的兼职。经济和政策研究中心的经济学家迪恩·贝克和海琳·乔根森在近期的研究中标注，到今年，数字下降到5%多一点。

What Obamacare does seem to have done, by contrast, is liberate more people to work part-time if they choose. Through the first six months of the year, 13.2 percent of U.S. workers were in voluntary part-time jobs, compared with 13.1 percent in 2013. Who is opting for part-time jobs? Mostly younger parents with children, according to CEPR, which supported Obamcare ahead of its passage in 2010.

相较之下，奥巴马医改看上去已经做到的是让更多兼职的人解放出去，如果他们选择的话。从这一年的前六个月来看，同2013年的13.1%相比，13.2%的美国工人都在做资源的兼职工。谁在选择做兼职？据经济政策研究中心所说，很多有孩子的年轻父母在政策在2010年大行其道之前就支持奥巴马医改。

"This is consistent with a story where many workers who previously needed to work full-time to get health care insurance at their job are taking the option of buying insurance on the exchanges and working part-time jobs in order to have more time to be with young children," Baker and Jorgensen write.

“很多先前工人需要做全职来拿医疗保险的人，都在交换中选择购买保险，做兼职来为了腾出更多时间陪孩子，”贝克和乔根森写道。

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