中英文字幕

This is about a hidden corner of the labor market.

劳动力市场上有个角落备受冷落。

It’s the world of people who need to work ultra-flexibly, if they’re to work at all.

世界上有很多人需要特别灵活的工作时间，如果他们需要工作的话。

So think, for instance, of someone who has a recurring but unpredictable medical condition, or somebody who’s caring for a dependent adult,

例如，一个人患病，有经常性的却不知道什么时候会发作的病，或是家里有无自主能力需要照顾的成年人，

or a parent with complex child care needs.

抑或是一对需要照顾孩子的父母。

Their availability for work can be such that it’s, “A few hours today.

他们能工作的时间仅仅是”今天的几个小时。

Maybe I can work tomorrow, but I don’t know if and when yet.”

也许明天我可以工作，但这都不确定”。

And it’s extraordinarily difficult for these people to find the work that they so often need very badly.

这些人要找工作十分困难，偏偏他们又十分需要工作。

Which is a tragedy because there are employers who can use pools of very flexible local people booked completely ad hoc around when that person wants to work.

这简直是悲剧，因为这是一群可以灵活运用的本地雇员，这些人的时间可以在想要工作的时候被预订。

Imagine that you run a cafe.

想象你有一家快餐厅。

It’s mid-morning, the place is filling up.

正好是中午，人满为患。

You’re going to have a busy lunchtime rush.

繁忙的午餐时间马上就道了。

If you could get two extra workers for 90 minutes

如果你能多找两个工人工作90分钟

to start in an hour’s time, you’d do it, but they’d have to be reliable, inducted in how your cafe works.

要在一个小时内开始，你肯定很乐意。当然，他们得可靠并熟悉快餐厅的工作。

They’d have to be available at very competitive rates.

他们的工资得很有竞争力，

They’d have to be bookable in about the next minute.

他们得可以立即被预订。

In reality, no recruitment agency wants to handle that sort of business, so you are going to muddle by,  understaffed.

现实中，没有招聘代理机构愿意碰这类业务，因此，你只能在人手不足时勉强应付。

And it’s not just caterers, it’s hoteliers, it’s retailers, it’s anyone who provides services to the public or businesses.

这不只是快餐业（的问题），它是酒店经营者、 零售商，它是任何人向公众或企业提供服务的人（的问题）。

There’s all sorts of organizations that can use these pools of very flexible people, possibly already once they’ve been inducted.

有各种各样的组织，可以使用这些需要自由工作时间的人，可能他们已经被招募了。

At this level of the labor market, what you need is a marketplace for spare hours.

在这个层面的劳动力市场，你需要的是一个业余时间市场。

They do exist.

它们确实存在。

Here’s how they work.

它们是这样运作的。

So in this example, a distribution company has said, we’ve got a rush order that we’ve got to get out of the warehouse tomorrow morning.

例如，一个分销公司说，我们有个急件，要求明天早上就得送出仓库。

Show us everyone who’s available.

告诉我们谁有空。

It’s found 31 workers.

它找到31个人有空。

Everybody on this screen is genuinely available at those specific hours tomorrow.

这屏幕出现的每个人，在明天指定的几个小时内，都绝对可以工作。

They’re all contactable in time for this booking.

他们在这个预约时间内都可以联系到。

They’ve all defined the terms on which they will accept bookings.

他们已经提出了接受预约的条件。

And this booking is within all the parameters for each individual.

而这个预约满足了这里每一个人的所有要求。

And they would all be legally compliant by doing this booking.

满足了所有法律规定的要求。

Of course, they’re all trained to work in warehouses.

当然，他们对于仓库工作训练有素。

You can select as many of them as you want.

你可以按你的需求选择尽可能多的雇员。

They’re from multiple agencies.

他们来自多个中介机构。

It’s calculated the charge rate for each person for this specific booking.

这里计算出这次预约要付给每个人多少雇佣金。

And it’s monitoring their reliability.

同时还可以核查他们的真实性。

The people on the top row are the provenly reliable ones.

最上面一行的人，是最可靠的。

They’re likely to be more expensive.

所以雇佣金可能会高点。

In an alternative view of this pool of local, very flexible people, here’s a market research company,

另一个这些人可以发挥作用的场合，有一个市场调研公司，

and it’s inducted maybe 25 local people in how to do street interviewing.

它征召了25个本地人并告诉他们怎么做街头采访。

And they’ve got a new campaign.

他们有一个新的市场计划。

They want to run it next week.

他们想要下个星期就付诸行动。

And they’re looking at how many of the people they’ve inducted are available each hour next week.

他们可以看他们招募的这些人中在下周每天中分别有几个小时有空。

And they’ll then decide when to do their street interviews.

他们然后会决定什么时候做街头采访。

But is there more that could be done for this corner of the labor market?

但是我们还可以为劳动力市场角落的这些人做得更多吗？

Because right now there are so many people who need whatever economic opportunity they can get.

因为现在有这么多人会尽力争取到一切可以挣钱的机会。

Let’s make it personal.

让我们使其个性化。

Imagine that a young woman — base of the economic pyramid,

想象一下一名年轻女子——在经济金字塔的底端，

very little prospect of getting a job — what economic activity could she theoretically engage in?

很差的就业前景——她可以参与什么经济活动呢？

Well, she might be willing to work odd hours in a call center, in a reception area, in a mail room.

嗯，她可能会愿意在别人不愿意的时段工作，在电话中心，接待员，或者邮局。

She may be interested in providing local services to her community: babysitting, local deliveries, pet care.

她可能会对为她的社区提供服务感兴趣：保姆、 送货、宠物护理。

She may have possessions that she would like to trade at times she doesn’t need them.

她可能有一些物品，但她想在不需要的时候进行交易。

So she might have a sofa bed in her front room that she would like to let out.

所以她可能在客厅有个沙发床想要出让，

She might have a bike, a video games console she only uses occasionally.

她可能会有偶尔用用的自行车和游戏机。

And you’re probably thinking — because you’re all very web-aware — yes, and we’re in the era of collaborative consumption,

你可能会想——因为你们都非常熟悉互联网——是的，我们是在合作消费的时代，

so she can go online and do all this.

所以她可以在网上做这些事。

She can go to Airbnb to list her sofa bed, she can go to Task Rabbit .com and say, “I want to do local deliveries,” and so on.

她可以去Airbnb列出她的沙发床，她可以到TaskRabbit.com去说：”我想要做本地的送货服务。”等等。

So we’re talking about sectors like home hair care, the hire of toys, farm work, hire of clothes even, meals delivered to your door,

所以我们讲的是诸如家庭头发护理，租用玩具、 农场工作，甚至租用衣服，和送餐服务，

services for tourists, home care.

旅游、 家庭护理服务。

This would be a world of very small trades, but very well-informed, because national e-markets will deliver data.

这会是一些不起眼的行业，但消息非常灵通，因为国家电子市场将提供数据。

So this is a local person potentially deciding whether to enter the babysitting market.

所以这是一个本地人可能决定是否进入保姆市场。

And they might be aware that they would have to fund vetting and training if they wanted to go into that market.

他们可能意识到，如果他们想进入该市场，他们就必须资助审查和培训。

They’d have to do assessment interviews with local parents who wanted a pool of babysitters.

他们要与本地想雇佣保姆的家长做评估采访。

Is it worth their while?

这值得吗？

Should they be looking at other sectors?

他们要不要看看别的行业呢？

Should they be moving to another part of the country where there’s a shortage of babysitters?

要不要搬到本国的另一个地区呢？那些保姆短缺的地方？

This kind of data can become routine.

这种数据可以成为惯例。

And this data can be used by investors.

此数据可被投资者使用。

So if there’s a problem with a shortage of babysitters in some parts of the country and the problem is nobody can afford the vetting and training,

如果某些地区有保姆短缺问题，问题是没有人可以负担得起审批和培训，

an investor can pay for it and the system will tithe back the enhanced earnings of the individuals for maybe the next two years.

投资者可以付钱，系统将从个人增加的收入中抽税，也就是可能在接下来的两年中这样子。

This is a world of atomized capitalism.

这是一个原子化的资本主义世界。

So it’s small trades by small people, but it’s very informed, safe, convenient, low-overhead and immediate.

它是一小部分人做着小的交易，但它的非常可靠、 安全、 方便、 低开销和直接。

Some rough research suggests this could unlock around 100 million pounds’ worth a day of new economic activity in a country the size of the U.K.

部分大致的研究表明这将开启一天约 1 亿英镑的新的经济活动，在像英国这么大的国家。

Does that sound improbable to you?

你这听起来不可能吗？

That’s what a lot of people said about turbo trading in financial exchanges 20 years ago.

曾有很多人对涡轮交易的看法就是这样，也就是在20年前的金融交易所里。

Do not underestimate the transformative power of truly modern markets.

不要低估真正现代市场的这种变革的力量。

Thank you.

谢谢。