A. Read and translate the text. 1 Curiously enough, wherever you go you see that most employees are young folk

1 Curiously enough, wherever you go you see that most employees are young folk. There are very few middle-aged and no elderly folk at all among them, even though the retirement age is 65. The thing is that after a certain age is reached people crave to start their own businesses. They either set up their own firms, or join operating firms as partners.

2 One of motivations for this is the fear of becoming unemployed. Every employee is always haunted by the likelihood of losing his job, and girds himself[28] appropriately. Thus he pays dues[29] to cover loss of work which are complemented halfway by his employer. He also puts money aside “for a rainy day” as an investment or a bank deposit. He tries to acquire some sideline[30], even if it doesn’t meet all his needs, in short, be prepared for any eventuality.

3 In the United States job placement is also an industry. Firstly, you have federal and state employment agencies, who do not charge you for their services, but whose results are minimal. Secondly, you have similar private agencies, for whose services you must pay. During recession these agencies prosper. Some really get you employment. Charges differ. Sometimes an advance payment is demanded. Some agencies may require a deposit[31] with a remainder paid up over a certain period of time after one gets a job. Sometimes an employer pays the fee, which, as a rule, is equivalent to one’s monthly pay. Or a percentage may be deducted from the pay over the entire period which is usually, when the job is temporary, of no more than six months or so.

4 However, the most common job-hunting approach is via newspaper advertisements, as even when recessions are worst and employees are laid off wholesale, newspapers feature a lot of want ads[32], true, often not for the kind of job you are looking for. Most people secure jobs with the help of family and friends.

B. Give Russian equivalents to the following words and phrases:

employee, employer, employment, unemployment, to get somebody an employment, employment bureau /agency, to employ, to be unemployed, to be self-employed, a company employing more than 1000 people, a small proportion of population is employed in agriculture, agriculture directly employs 2.5% of working population, elderly folk, the middle-aged, retirement age, after a certain age is reached, after one gets a job, a temporary job, want ads, an entire period, it does not meet all your needs, to join operating firms as partners.

C. Find in the text words or word combinations which are equivalent in meaning to the following ones:

to lose one’s job, looking for a job, to compensate for a loss of work, to require, via, to get, to be fired, the rest (of the sum).

D. Find in the text English equivalents to the following phrases:

зарплата, предоплата, аванс /залог, гонорар, плата за услуги, не брать деньги с кого-либо за что-либо, трудоустройство, поиски работы, примерно один месяц, наиболее распространённый способ, очень мало или совсем нет (чего-то), кризис /спад производства, какой-то процент (какая-то часть денег) вычитается из вашей зарплаты.