full employment

British  

noun

1. a state in which the labour force and other economic resources of a country are utilized to their maximum

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full employment Cultural  

1. The condition that exists when all who want work can find jobs. Because some individuals will always be between jobs, full employment does not mean that one hundred percent of the workforce is employed. Rather, it is customarily defined as ninety-six percent of the total potential workforce.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

full employment

According to supporters, Greenspan’s theories about full employment, rising incomes and only moderate inflation helped make life better for millions of Americans who hadn’t fully shared in previous bursts of economic prosperity.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2026

Mainstream monetary economists for generations have operated on a theory—encapsulated by the Phillips Curve and its many iterations—that there exists a trade-off between full employment and price stability.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026

The Fed, which needs to balance both price stability and full employment, is likely to signal it has enough leeway to maneuver either way.

From Barron's ● Apr. 23, 2026

That is the federal-funds rate considered to be neither stimulative nor restrictive — what would prevail if the economy were at full employment but not overheated, with inflation stable.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 8, 2026

Being overworked himself, and his staff also in full employment, he asked Aymer to do this, and to do it especially well and carefully.

From World's End A Story in Three Books by Jefferies, Richard