make-work

American  

[meyk-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

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

A similar move here and bam – debt would be paid, make-work tolls could be gone, Seattle waterfront saved.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 19, 2022

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