unemployed

[uhn-em-ploid]

adjective

1. not employed; without a job; out of work.

   an unemployed secretary.

   Synonyms: jobless, at liberty, idle, unoccupied

2. not currently in use.

   unemployed productive capacity.

3. not productively used.

   unemployed capital.

noun

(used with a plural verb)

1. people who do not have jobs.

   programs to help the unemployed.

unemployed

/ ˌʌnɪmˈplɔɪd /

adjective

1. 1. without remunerative employment; out of work

   2. ( as collective noun; preceded by the )

      the unemployed

2. not being used; idle

Word History and Origins

Origin of unemployed¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; un- ¹ + employ + -ed ²

Example Sentences

The sister of another South African trapped in Donbas has told the BBC that her brother was recruited to receive "counter-intelligence" and "bodyguard" training for MK - an offer he took up because he was unemployed.

Read more on BBC

The continuing-claims data, which lag initial claims by a week, mirror trends in the total unemployed population, suggesting that for people who have lost work, finding a new role has grown more challenging.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“While job losses are not high compared to past economic downturns, job vacancies and job transitions have been low, so it has been relatively difficult for unemployed people to transition back to work,” it added.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

One risk is that AI could destroy more factory jobs than China expects, leaving it with too many unemployed workers.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But the report also showed that the number of continuing unemployment claims, a measure of the size of the unemployed population, rose by 28,000 to 1,974,000 in the week ended Nov. 8.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• idle 
• inactive 
• jobless 
• underemployed 

When To Use

What does unemployed mean?

Unemployed means not having a paid job—not being employed.A person who’s described as unemployed is typically out of work and looking for a job. A person who’s retired, for example, wouldn’t be said to be unemployed.Unemployed is sometimes used to refer to unemployed people collectively, as in These programs are intended to help the unemployed. The state of being unemployed is unemployment. The opposite of this is employment.The verb employ also means to use, and unemployed can be used to mean unused, as in We shouldn’t let these resources go unemployed. Example: I was unemployed for a long time before I was recruited in Greenland by someone who finally saw my strengths.