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EVERYONE complains that corporate America isreluctant to hire additional workers. Far less attention has been paid to the flip side of the jobless recovery: the remarkable improvement in American productivity. How long can this continue? I see no limit, says William Hickey, the boss of Sealed Air, a packaging-maker. Is he right to be so optimistic? 企业不愿再增加雇佣量在美国引起民怨沸腾。但很少有人关注减少失业率的有效途径：显著提升美国的劳动生产率水平。这种提升能持续多久?包装材料制造商宝廷的老总William Hickey 说：依我看来可无限期提升。他的这种乐观估计是对还是错? American firms were slow to react to the downturn at the beginning of the century, and paid the price. They learned their lesson. When the economy slumped in 2008, they were much quicker to adjust. There was little of the fall in labour productivity that normally accompanies a recession, and this was not just a one-off batting average effect . Rather, it was a productivity boost that has continued in defiance of expert predictions that workers can only be squeezed so hard for a short while. 新世纪之初，美国企业在应对经济衰退时反应迟钝，并为此付出了代价。它们吸取了教训，更快地适应了2008年的经济大萧条，且劳动生产率也没有如往常随经济衰退而下降。这不只是一次性实现的棒球击球率效应。专家们认为这是一种依靠压榨产业工人在短时期内维持的经济增长模式。然而恰恰相反，这种增长是靠全力提升劳动生产率实现的。 | 
