unemployment
Pluralunemployments
- 1The state of being without a job; the condition of being jobless.
Her sudden unemployment forced the family to cut back on every expense.
He struggled with the boredom and stress that came with unemployment.
Similarjoblessness
Oppositeemployment
Note
The word is built transparently from un- and employment, and this personal condition underlies the economic senses. It also works before another noun. In R. H. W. Bruce's "The L.M.S.R. in Northern Ireland; I" (Railway Magazine, 1944), a loop line built in 1928 is called an unemployment scheme: a construction project undertaken because of joblessness.
- 2The extent of joblessness across an economy, frequently given as the share of the labor force without work.
Unemployment fell sharply as factories reopened and began hiring again.
Economists watch unemployment closely to judge the health of the economy.
Similarjoblessness
Oppositeemployment
Note
Here the noun stands for a number. On its own, unemployment can be reported, can rise or fall, and can sit at a figure: "at 5.2% in May, up from 4.9% in April." You do not need to add the word rate. Because it behaves like a figure, it differs from joblessness as a phenomenon, which can cause things but cannot go up a point.
- 3The occurrence of joblessness as a feature of an economy.
Economists have long debated the causes of unemployment in modern economies.
Persistent unemployment can erode skills and weaken entire communities.
Similarjoblessness
Oppositeemployment
- 4A particular period or instance during which someone is without work.
A second unemployment in three years left him deeply discouraged.
Her brief unemployment ended when a former colleague offered her a role.
- 5A form of joblessness arising from a particular mechanism in the economy.
Structural unemployment arises when workers' skills no longer match available jobs.
Cyclical unemployment rises during recessions and falls during recoveries.
Note
Classification is what lets an apparently uncountable word take a plural. Here unemployment is counted by kind (seasonal, frictional, cyclical, classical), so a modifier usually comes first. The plural unemployments then means several types, not several people out of work. The same plural also counts individual spells without work, so context decides which reading is meant.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from the prefix un- combined with employment.