10.14【地美语165】2020全球商业趋势预测:零工经济兴起 (助力求职)

Jingjing:  Good afternoon, Mark.  Give me a second to finish this article.

京晶：下午好，马克。给我几分钟看完这篇文章。

Mark:  Sure, I'll wait.

马克：好的，我等你。

Jingjing:  There.  Thanks for holding on.

京晶：来了。谢谢你等我。

Mark:  What was the article about?  Do you mind telling me?

马克：这篇文章是关于什么的? 介意告诉我吗?

Jingjing:  No problem.  It was about business trends for 2020.  Halfway through it, I realized it was written before the COVID outbreak.

京晶：不介意。文章是关于2020年经济趋势分析。读到一半，我才意识到这是在新冠疫情爆发之前写的。

Mark:  Do most of the predictions still hold?

马克：那大部分预测还成立吗?

Jingjing:  It said consumer spending would grow by 14-20%.  The opposite has happened, I think.  Everything else, surprisingly, still seems like it's in the cards.

京晶：文章预测消费者支出将增长14-20%。我想，事实正好与之相反。但其他一切，令人惊讶的是，似乎都在预料之中了。

Mark:  What else did it forecast?

马克：它还预测了什么?

Jingjing:  Well, it says retail is likely to keep shifting over to online purchases.

京晶：嗯，它说零售业可能会继续向线上购买转移。

Mark:  We wouldn't need to read an article to know that.  Brick and mortar retailers have been having a hard time for more than a decade.

马克：我们根本不需要读文章就能知道这点。这十多年来实体零售店的日子一直不好过。

Jingjing:  Right, but here's what's new: one, the giants will grow more as upstarts face fiercer competition; and, two, big expensive AI will get cheap enough for traditional retailers to use.

京晶：没错，但这些是新情况：第一，当行业新人们应对更激烈的市场竞争时，商业巨头们将会发展得更加庞大；其次，大型昂贵的人工智能也会变得足够便宜，方便传统零售商使用。

Mark:  That second one is interesting.  It reminds me of Minority Report.  Did you see that movie?

马克：第二点很有趣。这让我想起《少数派报告》。你看过那部电影吗?

Jingjing:  I barely remember it. Anyway, what works for e-commerce can be used by shopping malls and department stores.

京晶：我几乎不记得了。无论如何，电子商务上管用的东西也能被购物中心和百货公司使用。

Mark:  That'd be interesting to see.  For now, we just have robots here and there—and they can't do very much.

马克：见到这些一定很有趣。目前，我们只是到处有机器人，并不能做很多事情。

Jingjing:  I know, right.  One just told me to straighten my mask, after I walked into a bakery the other day.

京晶：可不是吗。前几天我走进一家面包店，有个机器人只是提醒我把口罩戴严实。

Mark:  That's pretty good already.  Well, we'll look forward to an AI revolution in shopping malls and big stores.

马克：这已经算很好的了。好吧，我们期待在购物中心和大型商场里实现一场人工智能革命。

Jingjing:  No more long lines at the cashier, right?  That'd be revolutionary.

京晶：再也不用在收银台排长队了，对吧? 那将是革命性的巨变。

“

Jingjing:  Mark, would you like to hear more about business trends for 2020?

京晶：马克，想听更多2020年经济趋势吗?

Mark:  Sure, but tell me one of the lesser-known ones.  I've been hearing too much about big data already.

马克：当然，但告诉我一个不太为人所知的吧。我已经听得太多那些大数据之类的了。

Jingjing:  What about the gig economy?

京晶：那么零工经济呢?

Mark:  Hmm, surprise me.

马克：嗯, 说吧，让我开开眼。

Jingjing:  I'll try. The article said there'd be growth in businesses to take care of kids and in consulting.

京晶：我尽力。这篇文章说，儿童看护和咨询行业的业务将会增长。

Mark:  Wow.  So, we talked about computers taking over, and now can expect job growth where only humans can do the work, right?

马克：哇哦！所以，我们之前说到计算机接手一些工作，现在还能期待那些只有人类能胜任的工作也能出现就业增长了?

Jingjing:  Yes.  These jobs are less likely to be managed by big companies, and more likely to be searchable on platforms like we now use to hail taxi cabs or to reserve small hotels.

京晶：是的。这些岗位不太可能由大公司经营管理，而更有可能在像我们现在使用的打车或预订小旅馆的平台上进行搜索。

Mark:  Wow, it's hard for me to imagine putting my kid in a daycare like I would reserve an Airbnb.  But, I guess it makes sense: if I could read lots of comments and search based on four or five factors that were important to me, I could find a place in a new city, in a few minutes.

马克：哇，我很难想象把我的孩子送去日间托儿所，就像我在爱彼迎（Airbnb）上订房一样。但是，我想这是可能的：如果我能看到大量的评论，并且根据四五个对我来说很重要的条件进行检索，我就能在几分钟内在一个新城市找到一个托儿所。

Jingjing:  That's it.  And professional services, like accounting and legal council, could go onto job sites like these.

京晶：就是这样。还有更专业的服务，比如会计和法律顾问，都可以入驻这样的提供工作的网站。

Mark:  You mean people would visit a website instead of hiring a lawyer?

马克：你的意思是人们会直接访问网站而不是雇佣律师?

Jingjing:  For some simple services, yes.  But, mainly, the trend is for professionals to specialize more tightly and have their business acumen online for more people to see.

京晶：对于一些简单的服务，是的。但是，最主要的趋势是让专业人士更加专注于专业化，并在线上让更多的人看到他们的商业智慧。

Mark:  That'd be pretty cool.  It sounds like professionals will get a lot more ideas from their clients about how to add value to their fields.

马克：那太酷了。这样听起来像是专业人士会从他们的客户那里得到更多关于如何在他们的专业领域增加价值的想法。

Jingjing:  That's a good way of putting it.

京晶：这是一种很好的方式。

Mark:  Thanks for sharing what you've read, Jingjing.

马克：谢谢你分享你读到的东西，京晶。

Jingjing:  Sure thing.  Talk with you next time.

京晶：这是肯定的。下次再聊。

“

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