澳大利亞高薪招攬美國技工大綱
David Wade marched into the Marriott wearing a white cowboy hat and a bushy mustache. The 65-year-old pipe fitter from Alvin, Texas, was there to see a man about a job--in Australia.
頭戴白牛仔帽、留着濃密鬍鬚的大衛•韋德（David Wade）大步流星走進萬豪酒店（Marriott）。這名65歲的管道工來自德克薩斯州阿爾文市（Alvin），爲了一份工作來這裏見一個人──這份工作遠在澳大利亞。
The invitation-only job fair, organized by the Australian government and a group of natural resource and mining firms, marked the first recruitment effort in the U.S. To fast-track the process, the Australian government agreed to certify workers in the U.S. instead of making job candidates travel the about 8,700 miles to Australia.
這場僅限受邀者參加的招聘會由澳大利亞政府和一批自然資源及採礦企業主辦，是澳方在美國進行的第一場招聘。爲了加速招聘進程，澳大利亞政府同意在美國本土確認工人們的資質，而不需要應聘者專程去8700英里之外的澳大利亞。
The effort has incensed some Australian union leaders who contend the government should train unemployed workers Down Under. But the work was welcome by Americans eager to earn six-figure salaries toiling for companies including Rio Tinto Ltd. (, RIO, ), John Holland and Boart Longyear Ltd. (), often for what is blue-collar work.
Bloomberg News力拓位於皮爾巴拉的鐵礦廠這一舉措激怒了一些澳大利亞工會領袖，他們主張政府應在澳大利亞本土培訓失業工人。然而這些工作受到了美國工人們的歡迎，他們渴望進入力拓（Rio Tinto Ltd.）、約翰•霍蘭德（John Holland）以及寶長年（Boart Longyear Ltd.）等公司，通過勤懇工作掙得六位數的薪水。這些工作通常都是藍領工作。
Wade heard about the fair on the radio, while driving his 3/4-ton Chevrolet pickup around Alvin, a city of 24,000 south of Houston. About 2,600 people registered to attend, but only 650 with the needed skills were invited, Wade among them. Wade, who currently works for gas, oil and chemical companies, said he would move for a job paying over $170,000. One U.S. dollar is worth about 1.03 Australian dollars.
韋德從廣播中得知了這場招聘，當時他正開着自己0.75噸的雪佛蘭（Chevrolet）皮卡在阿爾文轉悠。阿爾文是休斯敦南邊一座人口2.4萬的城市。約有2,600人報名參加這次招聘，但僅有650位技術對口的求職者接到了邀請，韋德便是其中之一。韋德目前爲油氣以及化工公司工作，他表示願意爲了一份17萬美元年薪的工作而遠赴他鄉。1美元約合1.03澳元。
Qualified workers, a challenge for all mining firms, is particularly acute in Australia, the world's biggest producer of the iron ore destined for China's steel mills. Mining companies say that even with current production cutbacks they can't find enough skilled workers willing to toil in the country's rugged, isolated outposts, in spite of average salaries exceeding $100,000 a year. The industry estimates it will need 86,000 new workers by 2020.
合格工人的短缺是所有采礦企業都面臨的挑戰，在澳大利亞尤其嚴重。澳大利亞是世界最大的鐵礦石生產國，爲中國的鍊鋼廠提供大量原料。礦業公司稱，即使現在已經削減了產量，他們還是很難招夠願意在澳洲條件艱苦的偏遠地區作業的熟練技工，儘管他們開出的平均年薪已經超過了十萬美元。據估計到2020年，該行業累計還需新進8.6萬名工人。
