# employment

Pronunciation: say "im-PLOY-muhnt" /ɪmˈplɔɪmənt/

## Noun

1. Paid work: the job a person does, or the state of having such a job.
   - Simple: Having a job, or the job someone does for money.
   - _Her employment as a software engineer requires long hours at a desk._
   - _He described his employment on the fishing boat as hard but rewarding._
2. The hiring of a person, or the use of a person or thing for a particular purpose.
   - Simple: Hiring someone, or using a person or thing for a job or purpose.
   - _The committee questioned the company's employment of unpaid interns._
   - _Critics objected to the employment of drones for crowd monitoring._
3. The number or percentage of people in a population who are working.
   - Simple: The number or percentage of people who have jobs in a place or country.
   - _Employment rose by half a percentage point in the last quarter._
   - _The employment rate climbed to its highest level in a decade._

## Noun

4. An activity to which a person devotes time, such as a pastime or pursuit. *(dated)*
   - Simple: An activity that a person spends time doing, even when it is not a job.

## Origin

Formed from the verb "employ" plus the suffix "-ment." "Employ" came through Middle French "employer" (from "empleier") from Latin "implicō" ("to enfold, involve, be connected with"), which was built from "in-" plus "plicō" ("to fold").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/employment (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).