An increase in joblessness, leading to higher benefit payments, is not the cause: the unemployment rate is lower than it was a year ago.

有人认为失业率的升高引发了更高的福利金支付，但这并不是其中的原因：去年同一时段的失业率比现在还高。

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The Wall Street Journal's Kelly Evans wrote a short piece suggesting that extended unemployment benefits might lead to an increase in the unemployment rate.

华尔街日报的Kelly Evans撰写了一篇短文，暗示延长失业救济也许会导致失业率的增加。

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The urban unemployment rate through unemployment registration was 4.2 percent at the end of 2008, an increase of 0.2 percentage point against 2007.

年末城镇登记失业率为4.2%，比上年末上升0.2个百分点。

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Punishing small-business owners with punitive tax legislation such as this will only increase the unemployment rate and extend the recession.

CNN: Commentary: Obama's first 200 days a reckless experiment

She notes that each percentage point increase in the unemployment rate leads to a 1.1 million increase in the number of uninsured.

CNN: Few laid-off workers keep health insurance, report says

Over past crises, the duration of the period of rising unemployment averaged nearly five years, with a mean increase in the unemployment rate of seven percentage points, which would bring the U.S. to double digits.

WSJ: Opinion: Expect a Prolonged Slump