A huge influx of immigrants and now a potentially large move of welfare recipient into entry-level positions intensify competition for jobs, particularly lesser skilled ones.

企業(yè)主、勞工領(lǐng)袖和國會議員，甚至少數(shù)越來越直言不諱的企業(yè)和地方經(jīng)濟(jì)專家，對盛行幾十年的經(jīng)濟(jì)運轉(zhuǎn)理論和記錄經(jīng)濟(jì)運轉(zhuǎn)情況的統(tǒng)計數(shù)字提出質(zhì)疑。

Decades-old theories about how the economy performs and the statistics used to track it are being challenged by business and labor leaders as well as by congressmen and even an increasingly vocal minority of corporate and regional economists.

這種爭論非常重要，原因之一是：聯(lián)邦儲備委員會已經(jīng)開始提高利率，以便減緩經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展速度，并且預(yù)防通貨膨脹重新出現(xiàn)。

One reason this debate is so important is that the Federal Reserve Board has started raising interest rates to slow the economy and, in a kind of pre-emptive strike, to stop inflation from re-emerging.