jobless

[job-lis]

See more synonyms for jobless on Thesaurus.com

adjective

without a job.
noting or pertaining to persons without jobs, especially to those who are seeking employment.

noun

(used with a plural verb) unemployed people collectively, especially those who are seeking a job (usually preceded by the).

Origin of jobless

First recorded in 1800–10; job¹ + -less

Related formsjob·less·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for jobless

Contemporary Examples of jobless

Emergency benefits have just expired for some 1.3 million jobless Americans, putting a huge dent in our economy.
Republicans’ Unemployment Shame
Jamelle Bouie
December 28, 2013
With the help of GM and Ford and jobless claims at a five-year low, the S&P hit a record high of over 1,700 points.
Consumers Push July U.S. Auto Sales Up Sharply
Filipa Ioannou
August 1, 2013
Starting in early 2010, this ceased to be a jobless recovery.
The Phony Food-Stamp Scare
Daniel Gross
July 15, 2013
Business activity revived but reemployment lagged; policymakers confronted what would today be called a “jobless recovery.”
When Big Government Saved America
Mason Williams
June 28, 2013
One of the biggest factors in breaking out of a jobless streak could be … your teeth?
Bad Teeth, Broken Dreams: Lack of Dental Care Keeps Many Out of Jobs
CNBC
June 13, 2013

Historical Examples of jobless

Tens of thousands of them milling about, homeless, penniless, jobless.
Land of the Burnt Thigh
Edith Eudora Kohl
Two weeks ago he was down and out, broke, jobless, starving.
The Substitute Prisoner
Max Marcin
Enroll them in a networking club for the jobless, one of the really good ones.
Makers
Cory Doctorow
I ask him his opinion of a jobless faith, of a creed which dooms a man through life to a lean and plunderless integrity.
Peter Plymley's Letters
Sydney Smith
Half a thousand jobless workers, armed and reckless, marched toward the docks.
Port O' Gold
Louis John Stellman

British Dictionary definitions for jobless

jobless

adjective

1. unemployed
2. (as collective noun; preceded by the)the jobless

Derived Formsjoblessness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for jobless

1905 (adj.), 1909 (n.), from job (n.) + -less. Related: Joblessness.