Step aside, teens — senior citizens are the hot new fast-food recruits.

　　年轻人，请让一下，现在老年人是快餐店的热门新职员了。

　　As Americans live longer and the job market stays competitive, cheap eats chains are increasingly recruiting from senior centers, churches and aging advocacy groups like AARP, Bloomberg reports.

　　据彭博社报道，随着美国人寿命的延长以及就业市场的持续竞争，越来越多的廉价快餐连锁店开始从老年中心、教堂以及美国退休人员协会这样的老年人权益倡导组织招募员工了。

　　And it’s not just mortality and economic trends driving the shift. Seniors have more polished social skills — whereas teens are stunted from growing up online with fewer real-world interactions.

　　推动这种转变的不仅仅是死亡率和经济趋势。老年人的社交能力更强，而青少年的成长受到网络环境影响，缺乏与现实世界的互动。

　　“A lot of times with the younger kids now, they can be very disrespectful,” 63-year-old Church’s Chicken manager Stevenson Williams tells Bloomberg of his teen co-workers at the North Charleston, SC, restaurant.

　　Church’s Chicken 炸鸡快餐店63岁的经理史蒂文森.威廉姆斯向彭博社讲述了他在北查尔斯顿SC餐厅工作时，他那些十几岁同事们的情况：“这些孩子经常让人觉得很无礼。”

　　“You have to coach them and tell them this is your job, this is not the street,” Williams says.

　　威廉姆斯说:“你必须指导他们，告诉他们这是你的工作，不是在大街上玩乐。”

　　Having “soft skills” such as politeness often comes more easily to members of the Silent Generation, who have had a lifetime of experience in the workforce to learn how to treat customers compared with their millennial or Gen Z counterparts.

　　对于沉默的一代来说，拥有礼貌等“软技能”往往更容易。与千禧一代或Z世代相比，他们在工作中积累了一辈子的经验，学会了如何对待客户。

　　Employers thus get a more mature worker at no additional cost — but the reasons for seniors outpacing teen hires are many.

　　因此，雇主无需额外成本就能得到一个更成熟的员工，但还有很多原因可以解释为什么年长者的竞争力超过了青少年。

　　The US Census Bureau reported this year that, by 2035, there will be more Americans over age 65 than there are children under age 18.

　　美国人口普查局今年的报告称，到2035年，美国65岁以上人口将超过18岁以下人口。

　　Plus, fewer people in their prime are working — thanks to the opioid epidemic, mass incarceration, and unaffordable child care that forces many parents to stay home, according to a joint study by Princeton University and the Brookings Institution, a Washington, DC, think tank.

　　此外，根据普林斯顿大学和华盛顿智库布鲁金斯学会联合进行的一项研究，由于阿片类药物的流行、大规模监禁和难以负担的儿童保育，许多父母不得不呆在家里，出来工作的青壮年就更少了。

　　The US Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts the number of American workers aged 65 to 74 will swell 4.5 percent by 2024, while the 16-to-24 demographic could shrink 1.4 percent.

　　美国劳工统计局预计，到2024年，年龄在65岁至74岁之间的美国劳动者将增加4.5%，而16岁至24岁的美国劳动者将减少1.4%。

　　By 2024, the BLS projects the labor force will grow to about 164 million people. That number includes about 41 million people ages 55 and older— about 13 million of those are expected to be ages 65 and up.

　　劳工统计局预计，到2024年，劳动力将增加到1.64亿左右。这个数字包括大约4100万名55岁及以上的人，其中大约1300万人预计年龄在65岁及以上。

　　So don’t be surprised to see even more service with a smile — and silver hair — in that drive-thru lane.

　　所以，当你在得来速的车道上看到更多的银发老人微笑着为你服务时，不要惊讶哦。