Skip to main content
unemployment

unemployment

673 2.3
A time when people do not have paid jobs and look for work
  • noun
  • /ˌʌnɪmˈplɔɪmənt/
translation icon : desempleo
  • In the two countries hardest hit, Germany and the United States, unemployment was above 30 percent.
  • unemployment rate
  • high unemployment
  • inflation and unemployment

No, it says higher unemployment, lower inflation.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • We've got a serious unemployment problem on our hands.

  • If this kept up, he was going to run out of unemployment compensation before he found anything.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • In a future with mass unemployment, young people are forced to sell blood.

  • So not only do I get the time off, I can collect unemployment benefits, too.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • A rising rate of inflation may reduce unemployment; a high rate will not.

    Academic text (1990)
  • African American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded.

  • At the time there was general unemployment and universal hunger.

  • Similar violence has occurred in Spain, where unemployment stands at over 20 percent.

    Academic text (2011)
  • And we've just seen the biggest annual fall in unemployment since records began.

  • The government is implementing new policies to reduce unemployment rates in the country.

Synonyms

joblessness
vsunemployment
9 3.4

A situation when people do not have paid work

emphasizes active searching for work rather than mere absence
nonemployment
vsunemployment
5.3

Not having a paid job, often when not looking for work

focuses more on people who are actively seeking work
worklessness
vsunemployment
6.8

A time without a job or paid work

includes any lack of work rather than stressing active search

Antonyms

403 2.1

Having a paid job

Compounds

unemployment rate
  • Specialized
149 3.4

The percentage of people looking for work who do not have a job

A line of people at a government office waiting to get job help or benefit money

Money a government pays to people who lose their jobs

How Employed

full employment
  • Specialized
10 4.1
employment
403 2.1
unemployment
673 2.3

Surface Forms

unemployment singular
unemployment plural

Morphology

unemployment = employment (transparent) = un + employ + ment

Formed by adding the negative prefix 'un-' to 'employment', yielding the state of not having employment; the meaning follows standard composition.

Etymology

The word unemployment starts with un- meaning 'not' and uses employ meaning 'to give someone work'. So unemployment literally means 'not employed', which is why it means 'not having a paid job'.