make-work

American  

[mayk-wurk] / ˈmeɪkˌwɜrk /

noun

1. work, usually of little importance, created to keep a person from being idle or unemployed.

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make-work Cultural  

1. Publicly provided employment that is designed primarily to relieve unemployment and only incidentally to accomplish important tasks. If private employers are hiring few people because of a business slump, the government can “make work” for people to do.

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Etymology

Origin of make-work

1935–40, noun use of verb phrase make work

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

make-work

If U.S. policymakers want to rapidly expand semiconductor manufacturing — or improve our infrastructure, or accelerate the clean-energy transition — that requires incentivizing leaner, more efficient operations, not creating make-work projects.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 2, 2023

Through the 1990s he was given make-work tasks, like assessing the environmental impact of space rockets.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 9, 2021

Various New Deal policies also established make-work programs for the unemployed, provided relief to the desperately poor and restored confidence in the banking system.

From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2019

All nonengineers are pressed into service with a government make-work maintenance corps called Reconstruction and Reclamation, or “Reeks and Wrecks” for short.

From Slate ● Mar. 15, 2016

And the worst thing was that even with our make-work projects, we didn’t really have enough to do.

From "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert C. O'Brien

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