employment

American  

[em-ploi-muhnt] / ɛmˈplɔɪ mənt /

noun

employments plural

1. an act or instance of employing someone or something.

2. the state of being employed; employ; service.

   to begin or terminate employment.

3. an occupation by which a person earns a living; work; business.

   Synonyms:

   profession, trade, job, calling, vocation

4. the total number of people gainfully employed or working.

5. an activity or the like that occupies a person's time.

   She found knitting a comforting employment for her idle hours.

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employment British  

/ ɪmˈplɔɪmənt /

noun

1. the act of employing or state of being employed

2. the work or occupation in which a person is employed

3. the purpose for which something is used

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Usage

What does employment mean? Employment most generally means the state of having a paid job—of being employed. To employ someone is to pay them to work. An employer provides employment to employees. Employment can also refer to the act of employing people, as in We’re working to increase our employment of women. Or it can refer to a person’s work or how they earn a living, as in What does he do for employment?In the context of economics, employment is commonly used to mean the total number of people employed, such as in a country, as in Employment is up this quarter, with thousands of new jobs having been created. The opposite of this is unemployment—the total number of people who are unemployed (who do not have a job). Unemployment also commonly means the state of being unemployed. Employ can also be used as a synonym of the verb use, and employment can be employed as a synonym of the noun use, as in The employment of artificial intelligence creates many ethical concerns. Example:In this economy, finding consistent employment is a challenge for many workers.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonemployment
  noun
• overemployment
  noun
• reemployment
  noun
• proemployment
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• employments
  plural

Etymology

Origin of employment

First recorded in 1585–95; employ + -ment

Explanation

Employment is your occupation or the fact that you have a job. If you are looking for employment, you might start by attending a job fair — if you make a good impression, you might get hired immediately. If you have employment, it means you have a job. You can also use the noun employment to talk about exactly what that job involves, like your employment in the entertainment industry or in the carnival business. Employment also refers to the act of giving someone a job. The Latin root is the word implicare, meaning "enfold, involve, or be connected with."

Example Sentences

Employment of electricians is projected to grow 9 percent from 2024 to 2034, much faster than the average for all occupations, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released two years ago.

From Barron's • Jul. 2, 2026

Employment in white-collar “information jobs” — media, entertainment and high tech — have declined by 13% since the end of 2022.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 24, 2026

Employment expanded for a fifth consecutive month, the survey said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 15, 2026

County leave child-care centers annually, according to a 2025 study from the UC Berkeley Center for the Study of Child Care Employment.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 8, 2026

Employment agencies in Seattle received inquiries about the availability of jobs—any kind of job, no matter how low paying—from as far away as Missouri and Arkansas.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Related Words

• business
• contracting
• enrollment
• hiring
• job
• recruitment
• service
• trade