unemployment

[uhn-em-ploi-muhnt]

noun

1. the state of being unemployed, especially involuntarily.

   Automation poses a threat of unemployment for many unskilled workers.

2. the number of persons who are unemployed.

3. Informal.,  unemployment benefit.

unemployment

/ ˌʌnɪmˈplɔɪmənt /

noun

1. the condition of being unemployed

2. the number of unemployed workers, often as a percentage of the total labour force

Other Word Forms

• antiunemployment adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of unemployment¹

First recorded in 1885–90; un- ¹ + employment

Example Sentences

“We are particularly mindful of the pressures on our core customer demographic, including rising unemployment levels, as well as near-term volatility around consumer sentiment,” the company said Thursday.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

That’s because policymakers will not get an updated unemployment rate, a key metric that officials weigh, for October or November ahead of the Dec. 9-10 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee.

Read more on Barron's

Officials in the rate-cut camp viewed cuts as guarding against the possibility of a sharp rise in the unemployment rate.

Read more on MarketWatch

Because of the shutdown, the BLS wasn’t able to complete its typical household survey last month, so the agency won’t be able to publish any data on the unemployment rate in October, the BLS said.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

In her speech at the Labour Party Conference in 2025, Rachel Reeves promised "nothing less than the abolition of long-term youth unemployment".

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• bankruptcy 
• collapse 
• decline 
• deflation 
• downturn 
• hard times www.thesaurus.com
• inflation 
• shakeout 
• slide 
• slump 
• stagnation 

When To Use

What does unemployment mean?

Unemployment is the state of not having a paid job—of being unemployed.Unemployment is also commonly used in the context of economics to mean the total number of people unemployed, such as in a country, as in Unemployment is down this quarter, with thousands of new jobs having been created. The opposite of this is employment—the total number of people who are employed. Employment also commonly means the state of being employed.The word unemployment is sometimes used as a short and informal way of referring to an unemployment benefit, which is an allowance of money paid to unemployed workers, such as by the government. People receiving such a benefit are often said to be receiving unemployment.Example: Unemployment is extremely stressful when you go months without any job prospects.