full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Andrew McAfee: Are droids taking our jobs?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


As it turns out, when tens of millions of people are unemployed or underemployed, there's a fair amount of interest in what technology might be doing to the lobar force. And as I look at the conversation, it strikes me that it's focused on exactly the right topic, and at the same time, it's mssinig the point entirely. The topic that it's focused on, the question is whether or not all these digital technologies are affecting people's ability to earn a living, or, to say it a little bit different way, are the droids taking our jobs? And there's some evidence that they are.

The Great Recession ended when ariceman GDP rsmeeud its kind of slow, steady march upward, and some other economic indicators also started to roeubnd, and they got kind of healthy kind of quickly. Corporate pfoirts are quite high; in fact, if you idcnule bank profits, they're hgheir than they've ever been. And business investment in gear — in equipment and hardware and software — is at an all-time high. So the buenssiess are getting out their ckkohobces. What they're not really doing is hiring. So this red line is the employment-to-population ratio, in other words, the paegcntere of working-age people in America who have work. And we see that it cratered during the Great risoecesn, and it hasn't started to bounce back at all.

Open Cloze


As it turns out, when tens of millions of people are unemployed or underemployed, there's a fair amount of interest in what technology might be doing to the _____ force. And as I look at the conversation, it strikes me that it's focused on exactly the right topic, and at the same time, it's _______ the point entirely. The topic that it's focused on, the question is whether or not all these digital technologies are affecting people's ability to earn a living, or, to say it a little bit different way, are the droids taking our jobs? And there's some evidence that they are.

The Great Recession ended when ________ GDP _______ its kind of slow, steady march upward, and some other economic indicators also started to _______, and they got kind of healthy kind of quickly. Corporate _______ are quite high; in fact, if you _______ bank profits, they're ______ than they've ever been. And business investment in gear — in equipment and hardware and software — is at an all-time high. So the __________ are getting out their __________. What they're not really doing is hiring. So this red line is the employment-to-population ratio, in other words, the __________ of working-age people in America who have work. And we see that it cratered during the Great _________, and it hasn't started to bounce back at all.

Solution


  1. missing
  2. include
  3. rebound
  4. labor
  5. checkbooks
  6. resumed
  7. american
  8. percentage
  9. recession
  10. higher
  11. profits
  12. businesses

Original Text


As it turns out, when tens of millions of people are unemployed or underemployed, there's a fair amount of interest in what technology might be doing to the labor force. And as I look at the conversation, it strikes me that it's focused on exactly the right topic, and at the same time, it's missing the point entirely. The topic that it's focused on, the question is whether or not all these digital technologies are affecting people's ability to earn a living, or, to say it a little bit different way, are the droids taking our jobs? And there's some evidence that they are.

The Great Recession ended when American GDP resumed its kind of slow, steady march upward, and some other economic indicators also started to rebound, and they got kind of healthy kind of quickly. Corporate profits are quite high; in fact, if you include bank profits, they're higher than they've ever been. And business investment in gear — in equipment and hardware and software — is at an all-time high. So the businesses are getting out their checkbooks. What they're not really doing is hiring. So this red line is the employment-to-population ratio, in other words, the percentage of working-age people in America who have work. And we see that it cratered during the Great Recession, and it hasn't started to bounce back at all.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
digital technologies 3
digital tools 3
human history 3
labor force 2
job growth 2
couple examples 2
knowledge workers 2
ken jennings 2
huge digital 2
endless debate 2
big developments 2
infinitely multiplying 2
digital technology 2


Important Words


  1. ability
  2. affecting
  3. america
  4. american
  5. amount
  6. bank
  7. bit
  8. bounce
  9. business
  10. businesses
  11. checkbooks
  12. conversation
  13. corporate
  14. cratered
  15. digital
  16. droids
  17. earn
  18. economic
  19. ended
  20. equipment
  21. evidence
  22. fact
  23. fair
  24. focused
  25. force
  26. gdp
  27. gear
  28. great
  29. hardware
  30. healthy
  31. high
  32. higher
  33. hiring
  34. include
  35. indicators
  36. interest
  37. investment
  38. jobs
  39. kind
  40. labor
  41. line
  42. living
  43. march
  44. millions
  45. missing
  46. people
  47. percentage
  48. point
  49. profits
  50. question
  51. quickly
  52. ratio
  53. rebound
  54. recession
  55. red
  56. resumed
  57. slow
  58. software
  59. started
  60. steady
  61. strikes
  62. technologies
  63. technology
  64. tens
  65. time
  66. topic
  67. turns
  68. underemployed
  69. unemployed
  70. upward
  71. words
  72. work