workforce
Americannoun
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workforces
plural
-
the total number of workers in a specific undertaking.
a holiday for the company's workforce.
-
the total number of people employed or employable.
a sharp increase in the nation's workforce.
noun
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the total number of workers employed by a company on a specific job, project, etc
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the total number of people who could be employed
the country's workforce is growing rapidly
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of workforce
First recorded in 1940–45; work ( def. ) + force ( def. )
Explanation
The term workforce is useful when you talk about a group of people who work or are available to work. You might, for example, talk about the information technology workforce or the workforce in Austin, Texas. When you use the noun workforce, you are always talking about a lot of people, and you're usually referring to everyone in a particular industry or area. Economists often discuss the entire country's workforce, and you've probably heard about the auto industry workforce or the nursing workforce on the news. Workforce can be a singular or plural word, since it's used for a group of many individuals. It's been in use since the early 1960's.
Vocabulary lists containing workforce
The Modern Period, c. 1750 to c. 1914
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"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 8
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Employment, List 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The early returns showed healthcare workforce specialist Elaine Alaniz and former board member Nancy Pearlman locked in a close race for second and third.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026
Sentra co-founder Yoav Regev expects to double the startup’s workforce of roughly 130 employees within the next 12 to 18 months.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026
Plus, why Microsoft is offering buyouts to a quarter of its workforce and CEOs are going back to school after making it to the top.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026
The sector's success has been built on a vast, relatively low-paid workforce, with longstanding disputes over wages, working conditions and labour rights.
From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026
Bill was an engineer, and Daisy a stay-at-home mom who would later enter the workforce and earn master’s degrees in education and psychology.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
Longer term, the region needs labor-market reforms to tackle issues such as shrinking workforces and underemployment, the IMF said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
BlackRock said it would work with corporate clients to analyze the demographics and wages of their workforces, among other factors, to help inform investment choices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Leadership coach and business psychologist Jacqueline Ackerman says that workforces generally don't object to a young person taking over because of their age.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
In that proceeding, Verizon pledged to “further California’s public policy goals of diverse supply chains and workforces, including a $10 million partnership with the California State University system,” the PUC said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
Businesses aren’t hiring lots of people, but they are extremely reluctant to shrink their workforces with sales rising and the economy still expanding.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
