Wiktionary

unemployment

English

edit

Etymology

edit

From un- +‎ employment.

Pronunciation

edit

Noun

edit

unemployment (countable and uncountable, plural unemployments)

  1. The state of having no job; joblessness.
    Unemployment made Jack depressed.
    • 1944 May and June, R. H. W. Bruce, “The L.M.S.R. in Northern Ireland—I”, in Railway Magazine, page 147:
      In 1928, an arrangement was made between the Government of Northern Ireland and the N.C.C. for the construction of a loop line as an unemployment scheme.
  2. The phenomenon of joblessness in an economy.
    Unemployment has been considered a cause of crime.
  3. The level of joblessness in an economy, often measured as a percentage of the workforce.
    Unemployment was reported at 5.2% in May, up from 4.9% in April.
  4. (countable) A type of joblessness due to a particular economic mechanism.
    All unemployments, seasonal, frictional, cyclical, classical, whatever, mean that you're out of work.
  5. (countable) An instance or period of joblessness.
    Until then his life had consisted of low-paying jobs, numerous unemployments, and drug use.

Synonyms

edit

Antonyms

edit

Hyponyms

edit

Coordinate terms

edit

Derived terms

edit
edit

Translations

edit

Further reading

edit
  • "unemployment" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 325.
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=unemployment&oldid=82835117"