detect09年英语专业八级全真试题(3)

2021年1月10日发(作者：薛扯镐)
09年英语专业八级全真试题(3)
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Last month the first baby-boomers turned 60. The bulky generation
born between 1946 and 1964 is heading towards retirement. The looming
“demographic cliff” will see vast numbers of skilled workers dispatched
from the labour force.
The workforce is ageing across the rich world. Within the EU the
number of workers aged between 50 and 64 will increase by 25% over
the next two decades, while those aged 20-29 will decrease by 20%. In
Japan almost 20% of the population is already over 65, the highest share
in the world. And in the United States the number of workers aged 55-64
will have increased by more than half in this decade, at the same time as
the 35- to 44-year-olds decline by 10%.
Given that most societies are geared to retirement at around 65,
companies have a looming problem of knowledge management, of
making sure that the boomers do not leave before they have handed over
their expertise along with the office keys and their e-mail address. A
survey of human- resources directors by IBM last year concluded: “When
the baby-boomer generation retires, many companies will find out too
late that a career’s worth of experience has walked out the door, leaving
insufficient talent to fill in the void.”
Some also face a shortage of expertise. In aerospace and defence, for
example, as much as 40% of the workforce in some companies will be
eligible to retire within the next five years. At the same time, the number
of engineering graduates in developed countries is in steep decline.
A few companies are so squeezed that they are already taking
exceptional measures. Earlier this year the Los Angeles Times
interviewed an enterprising Australian who was staying in Beverly Hills
while he tried to persuade locals to emigrate to Toowoomba, Queensland,
to work for his engineering company there. Toowoomba today; the rest of
the developed world tomorrow?
If you look hard enough, you can find companies that have begun to
adapt the workplace to older workers. The AARP, an American
association for the over-50s, produces an annual list of the best employers
of its members. Health-care firms invariably come near the top because
they are one of the industries most in need of skilled labour. Other sectors
similarly affected, says the Conference Board, include oil, gas, energy
and government.
Near the top of the AARP’s latest list comes Deere & Company, a
no-nonsense industrial-equipment manufacturer based in Illinois; about
35% of Deere’s 46,000 employees are over 50 and a number of them are
in their 70s. The tools it uses to achieve that - flexible working,
telecommuting, and so forth - also coincidentaUy help older workers to
extend their working lives. The company spends “a lot of time” on the
ergonomics of its factories, making jobs there less tiring, which enables
older workers to stay at them for longer.
Likewise, for more than a decade, Toyota, arguably the world’s most
advanced manufacturer, has adapted its workstations to older workers.
The shortage of skilled labour available to the automotive industry has
made it unusually keen to recruit older workers. BMW recently set up a
factory in Leipzig that expressly set out to employ people over the age of
45.
Needs must when the devil drives.
Other firms are polishing their alumni networks. IBM uses its
network to recruit retired people for particular projects. Ernst & Young, a
professional-services firm, has about 30,000 registered alumni, and about
25% of its “experienced” new recruits are former employees who return
after an absence.
But such examples are unusual. A survey in America last month by
Ernst & Young found that “although corporate America foresees a
significant workforce shortage as boomers retire, it is not dealing with the
issue.” Almost three-quarters of the 1,400 global companies questioned
by Deloitte last year said they expected a shortage of salaried staff over
the next three to five years. Yet few of them are looking to older workers
to fill that shortage; and even fewer are looking to them to fill another gap
that has already appeared. Many firms in Europe and America complain