technological unemployment

American  

noun

1. unemployment caused by technological changes or new methods of production in an industry or business.

---

technological unemployment Cultural  

1. Unemployment caused by the displacement of workers by machines.

---

Etymology

Origin of technological unemployment

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

It is only when technological change takes out an industry in a particular region and people don't move that we see major technological unemployment and wage reductions.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 10, 2026

As social insecurities rise due to widening gaps of inequality, technological unemployment, so too has anxiety, stress and rage.

From Salon • Apr. 28, 2019

Today’s worry about mass technological unemployment is nothing new and probably won’t come to pass in its scariest imaginable form.

From Washington Post • Jul. 7, 2017

The economist John Maynard Keynes famously cried wolf in 1931, by issuing a warning of widespread "technological unemployment".

From Reuters • Jan. 20, 2016

Even Keynes in 1930 assured his readers that technological unemployment would be only a “temporary phase of maladjustment.”

From Slate • Aug. 6, 2014