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jobless

jobless

23 1.9
Not having a job
  • adjective
  • /ˈdʒɑːbləs/
translation icon : desempleado
  • Jobless and uninsured, Zimmerman was diagnosed with throat cancer and died alone two years later.
  • jobless and homeless
  • jobless recovery
  • jobless people

They, they want them joyless and jobless and voiceless.

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Examples

  • I may be temporarily jobless, thanks to you.

  • I'm 34, jobless, broke, totally alone, full of self-loathing and shame.

  • Two months later, I was still jobless and running out of money.

    Academic text (2003)
  • I'm jobless but not for want of trying.

  • In 1982, over 30 percent of the total Black labor force was jobless at some period during that year.

    Academic text (2016)
  • Things are improving, he says, noting a jobless friend recently found work.

    Blog text (15)
  • Now that I'm jobless, I can't afford to pay the mortgage.

  • In developed countries, jobless rates soared into double digits, and governments around the world spent trillions of dollars to aid those affected.

  • At Obama's inauguration, 7.1 percent of whites were jobless compared with 12.7 percent of blacks.

    Blog text (6)
  • With the economy struggling, many people are jobless and searching for new opportunities.

Synonyms

unemployed
vsjobless
274 1.7

Without work and looking for a job

is the same meaning but is the commonly used single word form
out of work
vsjobless
124 1.8

Without a job and trying to find one

is the same meaning but is an alternative multiword phrase
laid-off
vsjobless
  • US
68 4.0

Without a job because the company reduced staff or closed

is the general state of lacking a job without specifying business cause
workless
vsjobless
  • UK
3.9

Without a job or any paid position

is the same meaning but is an alternative single word form
nonworking
vsjobless
3.4

Not having a paid job

refers to lacking a job generally rather than only temporarily without paid work

Antonyms

1.0

Having a paid job

1.0

Having a job and earning money from it

How Employed

employed
1.0
underemployed
14 5.3
jobless
23 1.9

Surface Forms

jobless positive

Morphology

jobless = job (transparent) = job + less

Standard adjectival derivation: 'job' + suffix '-less' meaning 'without a job', fully compositional and easily inferable by learners.

Etymology

Jobless is simply job + -less, where -less means 'without', the same idea you see in hopeless or homeless. So, jobless means 'without a job', which is why it describes someone who is unemployed.