Meanwhile, even if Obama’s Republican opponents do not push the country over the fiscal cliff of automatic tax increases and spending cuts on January 1, they will ensure that America’s own form of mild austerity will continue. Public-sector employment is now roughly 600,000 below its pre-crisis level, while normal expansion would have meant 1.2 million additional jobs, implying a public-sector jobs deficit of almost two million.
同时，在1月1日的时候，即使奥巴马的共和党对手不把美国推下自动加税和削减开支构成的财政悬崖，他们也一定会让本国继续处在美国式的温和紧缩之下。公共部门的工作岗位已比危机前水平少了60万个，而按照正常发展应该增加120万份工作，这就意味着公共部门的岗位缺口已达到200万。