skilled labor
Americannoun
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labor that requires special training for its satisfactory performance.
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the workers employed in such labor.
Etymology
Origin of skilled labor
First recorded in 1770–80
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Businesses aren’t creating lots of jobs, but they don’t want to give up valuable employees either in a labor market in which skilled labor is harder than usual to find.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
Housing production requires home builders with capacity, banks willing to finance them, skilled labor and a pipeline of projects capable of being built repeatedly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
The Federal Reserve’s latest survey of businesses observed that while demand for workers has softened, “firms reported continued challenges finding skilled labor, particularly in engineering, health care, and other trades.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 8, 2026
That’s as those companies face bottlenecks from lack of contractors, skilled labor, equipment and transmission to deliver power to compute, he said.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 29, 2025
Teachers, librarians, bookkeepers, stenographers, all came under the head of skilled labor, as she soon discovered, and required a course of training—which Joan's step-mother would have to provide.
From Why Joan? by Eleanor Mercein Kelly
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
