workforce
Americannoun
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workforces
plural
-
the total number of workers in a specific undertaking.
a holiday for the company's workforce.
-
the total number of people employed or employable.
a sharp increase in the nation's workforce.
noun
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the total number of workers employed by a company on a specific job, project, etc
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the total number of people who could be employed
the country's workforce is growing rapidly
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of workforce
First recorded in 1940–45; work ( def. ) + force ( def. )
Explanation
The term workforce is useful when you talk about a group of people who work or are available to work. You might, for example, talk about the information technology workforce or the workforce in Austin, Texas. When you use the noun workforce, you are always talking about a lot of people, and you're usually referring to everyone in a particular industry or area. Economists often discuss the entire country's workforce, and you've probably heard about the auto industry workforce or the nursing workforce on the news. Workforce can be a singular or plural word, since it's used for a group of many individuals. It's been in use since the early 1960's.
Vocabulary lists containing workforce
The Modern Period, c. 1750 to c. 1914
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"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 8
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Employment, List 3
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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.
See Examples For:
Outreach was valued at $4.4 billion in 2021, but has since reduced its workforce by about 30%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Gong, a decade-old sales software company, retrained its workforce and recently surpassed $500 million in annual recurring revenue—a metric used by software companies that annualizes subscription revenue—growing over 55% year-over-year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
As Microsoft continues to invest significantly in AI, its gaming division, Xbox, is making major cuts to its workforce and selling several of its studios.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
It hired a net 28,800 employees between 2022 and 2024, a 60% headcount increase in three years, according to the company’s annual reports, resulting in a workforce of 77,349.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026
The communities and schools from which they come fail to prepare them for the workforce, and once they have been labeled criminals, their job prospects are forever bleak.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Businesses aren’t hiring lots of people, but they are extremely reluctant to shrink their workforces with sales rising and the economy still expanding.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
Some have offered dire warnings about the potential long-term effect of AI on workforces.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Meta and Oracle slashed over 10% of their workforces in favor of implementing AI into its operations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
Tech giants, by contrast, are cutting their workforces to support higher spending on AI.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 2026
The US strikes have sparked concern in India about the safety of India seafarers who constitute one of the largest maritime workforces, with nearly 300,000 serving on vessels across the globe.
From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2026
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.
