contract labor
Americannoun
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labor coercible by the enforceable provisions of a contract.
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foreign labor supplied under contract for a particular job.
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.
Gig work, contract labor, informal employment, and multiple job-holding complicate headline payroll figures.
From Barron's • Dec. 24, 2025
Supporters of the new rule, including labor unions, have said the change is necessary because of an uptick in the use of contract labor, including workers provided by staffing agencies, in recent years.
From Reuters • Oct. 26, 2023
Other parts of the world also relied on various forms of contract labor once slavery had been abolished.
From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022
In 1942, the temporary contract labor Bracero Program attracted millions of Latino workers to the country, including more than 46,000 Mexican laborers in the Northwest.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 13, 2022
Their assignment was to guard one hundred American prisoners of war, who would work as contract labor.
From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
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Definitions 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.