One connected people in exchange for a living (11)
I believe the answer is:
telephonist
'one' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.
'connected people in exchange for a living' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'connected' could be 'on' (synonyms) and 'on' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for telephonist that I've seen is " Switchboard operator".)