1 . Ideally, childhood is a time of growth and learning. But for many children around the world, this time is cut short when they are forced to work, sometimes in dangerous conditions. As a result, June 12 is recognized as the annual World Day Against Child Labor.

As of 2020, around 160 million children worked as child laborers, which means that one child in 10 was a child laborer. Overall, child labor has decreased over the past 20 years, but in recent years, this progress has stalled. Child labor is distinguished from ordinary housework, helping with a family business or working to earn pocket money after school. Work done by children is classified as child labor when it harms the child physically, mentally, socially or morally, or when it hinders(阻碍) the child’s education.

About 79 million children are engaged in hazardous child labor. Sometimes this means the work is extremely dangerous because of heavy machinery or exposure to chemicals. Hazardous child labor can also involve harsh conditions, long hours, or exposure to various kinds of abuse.

The primary goal of the World Day Against Child Labor is raising awareness of the issue and encouraging individuals, organizations and governments to take action. Fighting child labor is a complex task. It involves social workers who identify child laborers and take action to provide these children and their families with other options. But it also involves change in communities as a whole, challenging the social norms(行为准则) that can lead adults to make their children work.

Child labor and poverty often go hand in hand as parents feel that removing their children from school is necessary to earn money so the family can survive. So, measures or policies meant to fight poverty are also tied to preventing child labor. Being harmful to children and to communities, child labor hinders children from growing into healthy, educated citizens who could make a difference in society. By highlighting the problem and offering a variety of solutions, the World Day Against Child Labor can make the situation a bit better.

2 . Young people’s career expectations have become more concentrated in fewer occupations over the past two decades though social media and technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) are developing rapidly, according to a report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Traditional occupations from the 19th and 20th centuries, such as lawyers and police officers, continue to trap the imaginations of young people around the world as they did nearly 20 years ago.

The report, based on a latest survey of the 15-year-olds in 41 countries, said the career expectations of youngsters may be “antiquated and unrealistic”. Nearly half of young people around the world wish to work in just 10 of the most common professions. The surveys show that too many teenagers are ignoring, or don’t know, new types of jobs that are coming up, particularly as a result of digitalization (数字化). It is a concern that more young people than before appear to be picking their dream job from a small list of the most popular, traditional occupations, like teachers, lawyers or business managers.

The report found that among boys and girls who perform similarly in science, boys are more likely to expect to work in science and engineering. The top 10 occupations preferred by boys have changed very little since 2000 but girls are now more likely to want to be architects, police officers, and designers rather than hairdressers or writers.

The report also found a broader range of career expectations in countries with strong and firm occupational training for teenagers. For example, in Germany teenagers show a much wider range of career interests that better reflect patterns of labour market demands. More than a third of students in the UK report a lack of career advice at schools and colleges. Young people’s wishes are set as young as age seven, and do not change enough over time to meet demands.

Five-day workweeks are commonly accepted and practiced. But trials of a four-day workweek in Iceland have proven     1    (remarkable) successful and many companies around the world are following the trend. Why has this practice gained    2    (popular) and is it possible to apply it cross-culturally?

The trials     3     involved 2,500 workers were conducted from 2015 to 2019. Workers went from a 40-hour weekly schedule to 35-or 36-hour weekly schedules without a reduction in pay. An analysis of the results     4    (publish) in July, 2021. Researchers found that productivity stayed the same or improved across the majority of workplaces. Meanwhile, working fewer hours resulted in people     5    (feel) more energized and less stressed. They spent     6    (much) time exercising and seeing friends, which then had a positive effect     7     their work, participants said.

“This study shows that the world’s largest ever trial of a shorter working week in the public sector was by any measure     8     great success,” said Will Stronge, director of research at Autonomy. “It shows that the public sector is ripe for being a pioneer of shorter working weeks—and     9    (lesson) can be learned for other governments.”

A growing number of companies have already adopted a shorter working week and some bigger corporations are investigating the potential benefits of the change. Microsoft Corporation trialed a four-day workweek in Japan in 2019, and said productivity,     10    (measure) by sales per employee, went up by almost 40% compared to the same period the previous year.

8 . In 1970, before he became a blues legend, Stevie Ray Vaughan was working as a dishwasher in Dallas. One of his jobs was cleaning out the trash bin. To do it, Vaughan had to stand on some large wooden barrels, which were for the kitchen crew to dump hot grease(油脂). One day, while he was cleaning, the top of a barrel suddenly gave and he fell in.

Luckily for Vaughan, it had been a while since last grease was dumped, so the stuff had cooled and he was able to safely climb out of the barrel. However, the next day, Vaughan’s boss fired him for breaking the barrel. The young man could have been severely injured, but he lost his job for his trouble.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. National surveys suggest that burns, cuts, falls and other injuries are extremely common in the fast food industry, where underpaid people are placed under intense pressure to work quickly.

Then there’s wage theft—employers try to avoid paying workers what they’re legally entitled to. According to the Economic Policy Institute, lawyers together with federal and state agencies recovered at least $933 million for victims of wage theft in 2012 alone and that was just for the workers whose cases were successfully pursued.

People with power—employers, managers and owners of big and small businesses—quite often do mistreat their workers. And they do it because there are no consequences to fear and workers often can’t leave their job without putting their livelihood at risk. So they dare not speak out against the unfair treatment.

So we also need social institutions—a universal basic income, an allowance, a job guarantee, truly universal health care and more—that give workers an alternative to depending on incomes. And we need a strong labor movement that can punish employers if they don’t give workers their fair share and press the government to enforce the law.

9 . Last year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 55million people in the U. S. are “gig workers” which are more than 35 percent of the U. S. workforce. That number is projected to jump to 43 percent by 2020.

People are drawn to gig work(零工)because it brings in a little extra income without a major time commitment. And recent technologies like Skype, Slack, and Dropbox have made the gig life a reality, giving you maximum freedom, an ideal work­life balance, and the chance to pursue your passions.

If you’re thinking of joining the gig economy it’s never been easier. One of the great things about the gig economy(经济)is that you don’t have a boss breathing down your neck. As a freelancer (自由职业者), you no longer have to cater to a company culture or work schedule that might cause physical or emotional stress. Instead,you get to choose the type of work you do and who you work with. But this degree of freedom requires a corresponding amount of discipline. With no boss to make sure you’re on task, it’s all on you.

A lot of gig workers start their careers by hopping on a project because the employer is desperate and in need of help. On the employer’s end, it’s tough to take on people for higher management positions when the pool of talent is full of gig workers who haven’t been given an opportunity to improve their skills. Businesses have to evolve to learn how to account for an influx(涌入)of temporary workers. It is harder for gig workers to become skilled and get promoted.

The workforce is becoming more advanced and educated by the day. You have to keep learning and keep up with industry trends to maintain a competitive edge. This is true even for people in traditional office settings, but it’s critical if you’re your own boss.

Push for online recruitment from the government is on the way! The Ministry of Education will take    1    (practice) steps to promote online employment services. Meanwhile, campus job fairs for college graduates will be suspended    2    (avoid) large gatherings of people during the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic,    3    ministry official said in early February.

The ministry’s employment platforms will share job    4    (inform) with those of provinces, universities and recruitment services, so that they can jointly offer online employment services, said Wang Hui, director of the ministry’s Department of College Students Affairs. About 8.74 million college students    5    (graduate) from colleges and universities around China this June,    6    accounts for an increase of 400,000 as many graduates    7    last year.

Spring time recruitment is one of the most important    8    (opportunity) for graduates seeking jobs. The ministry will strictly review employer and recruitment updates    9    (post) online to ensure it is true,    10    promote online interviews, signing of contracts and employment procedures at universities across the country, Wang said.