unemployment

English

Etymology

un- +‎ employment

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʌn.ɪmˈplɔɪ.mənt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

unemployment (countable and uncountable, plural unemployments)

1. The state of having no job; joblessness.

   Unemployment made Jack depressed.

2. The phenomenon of joblessness in an economy.

   Unemployment has been considered a cause of crime.

3. The level of joblessness in an economy, often measured as a percentage of the workforce.

   Unemployment was reported at 5.2% in May, up from 4.9% in April.

4. (countable) A type of joblessness due to a particular economic mechanism.

   All unemployments, seasonal, frictional, cyclical, classical, whatever, mean that you're out of work.

5. (countable) An instance or period of joblessness.

   Until then his life had consisted of low-paying jobs, numerous unemployments, and drug use.

Synonyms

• joblessness, worklessness, unwork

Antonyms

• employment

Derived terms

• antiunemployment
• classical unemployment
• cyclical unemployment
• frictional unemployment
• funemployment
• Marxian unemployment
• seasonal unemployment
• structural unemployment
• technological unemployment
• unemployment benefit
• unemployment benefits
• unemployment insurance
• unemployment rate
• unemployment trap

 

Related terms

• unemployed

Translations

joblessness

• Afrikaans: werkloosheid
• Albanian: papunësi (sq) f
• Arabic: بِطَالَة‎ f (biṭāla), بَطَالَة‎ f (baṭāla)
• Armenian: գործազրկություն (hy) (gorcazrkutʿyun)
• Azerbaijani: işsizlik
• Belarusian: беспрацо́ўя n (bjespracóŭja)
• Bengali: দূর (dur), বেকারত্ব (bekarôtbô)
• Bulgarian: безрабо́тица (bg) f (bezrabótica)
• Burmese: အလုပ်လက်မဲ့ဖြစ်ခြင်း (a.luplakmai.hprachkrang:)
• Catalan: atur (ca) m, parada forçosa f, manca de treball f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 失業 (zh), 失业 (zh) (shīyè)

• Czech: nezaměstnanost (cs) f
• Danish: arbejdsløshed (da) c
• Dutch: werkloosheid (nl) f
• Esperanto: maldungo
• Estonian: tööpuudus
• Finnish: työttömyys (fi)
• French: chômage (fr) m
• Georgian: უმუშევრობა (umuševroba)
• German: Arbeitslosigkeit (de) f, Werklosigkeit f
• Greek: ανεργία (el) f (anergía)
• Hebrew: אַבְטָלָה‎ (he) f (avtalá)
• Hindi: बेरोज़गारी f (berozgārī), बेकारी (hi) f (bekārī)
• Hungarian: munkanélküliség (hu)
• Icelandic: atvinnuleysi (is) m
• Ido: neemployeso (io)
• Indonesian: pengangguran (id)
• Irish: dífhostaíocht f
• Italian: disoccupazione (it) f, inoccupazione (it) f
• Japanese: 失業 (ja) (しつぎょう, shitsugyō)
• Kazakh: жұмыссыздық (jumıssızdıq)
• Khmer: និកម្មភាព (km) (nikammaʼphiəp), អកម្មភាព (ʼaʼkammaʼphiəp)
• Korean: 실업(失業) (ko) (sireop)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: بێ ئیشی‎ (bê îşî), بێکاری‎ (ku) (bêkarî)

• Kyrgyz: жумушсуздук (ky) (jumuşsuzduq)
• Lao: ໄພຫວ່າງງານ (lo) (phai wāng ngān), ການວ່າງງານ (kān wāng ngān)

• Latvian: bezdarbs m
• Lithuanian: nedarbas (lt) m
• Macedonian: неврабо́теност f (nevrabótenost)
• Malay: pengangguran
• Maltese: qgħad m
• Manx: mee-staartaght f, neufailleydys m
• Mongolian: ажилгүйдэл (mn) (ajilgüidel)
• Norman: d'sempliai m (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: arbeidsledighet (no) m

  Nynorsk: arbeidsløyse (nn) f

• Ossetian: ӕнӕкуыст (ænæk°yst)
• Persian: بی‌کاری‎ (bi-kâri)
• Polish: bezrobocie (pl) n
• Portuguese: desemprego (pt) m
• Romanian: șomaj (ro) n
• Russian: безрабо́тица (ru) f (bezrabótica)
• Scottish Gaelic: cion-cosnaidh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: неза̀послено̄ст f

  Roman: nezàposlenōst (sh) f

• Slovak: nezamestnanosť f
• Slovene: brezposelnost f
• Spanish: desempleo (es) m, paro (es) m (Spain)
• Swedish: arbetslöshet (sv) c
• Tagalog: kawalang-hanapbuhay
• Tajik: бекорӣ (bekorī)
• Tatar: эшсезлек (tt) (eşsezlek)
• Thai: การว่างงาน (th) (gaan-wâang-ngaan)
• Turkish: işsizlik (tr)
• Turkmen: işsizlik
• Ukrainian: безробі́ття (uk) n (bezrobíttja)
• Urdu: بیکاری‎ f (bekārī)
• Uyghur: ئىشسىزلىق‎ (ishsizliq)
• Uzbek: ishsizlik (uz)
• Vietnamese: sự thất nghiệp (vi)
• Volapük: nenvob (vo)
• Welsh: diweithdra m, anghyflogaeth f
• Yiddish: אַרבעטסלאָזיקייט‎ f (arbetslozikeyt)
• Zazaki: bêkariye f

Further reading

• "unemployment" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 325.