unemployment

English

Etymology

From 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.

   • 1944 May and June, R. H. W. Bruce, “The L.M.S.R. in Northern Ireland—I”, in Railway Magazine, page 147:

     In 1928, an arrangement was made between the Government of Northern Ireland and the N.C.C. for the construction of a loop line as an unemployment scheme.

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, reemployment

Hyponyms

• classical unemployment
• cyclical unemployment
• demand-deficient unemployment
• frictional unemployment
• funemployment
• Marxian unemployment
• search unemployment
• seasonal unemployment
• structural unemployment
• technological unemployment
• wait unemployment

Coordinate terms

• disemployment, misemployment

Derived terms

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

Related terms

• unemployed

Translations

joblessness

• Afrikaans: werkloosheid
• Albanian: papunësi (sq) f
• Arabic: بِطَالَة f (biṭāla), بَطَالَة f (baṭāla)

  Moroccan Arabic: شوماج m (šomāj)

  South Levantine Arabic: بَطَالَة f (baṭāla)

• Armenian: գործազրկություն (hy) (gorcazrkutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: işsizlik
• Bashkir: эшһеҙлек (eşheźlek)
• Belarusian: беспрацо́ўя n (bjespracówja), незаня́тасць f (njezanjátascʹ), незаня́тасьць f (njezanjátasʹcʹ)
• Bengali: দূর (bn) (dur), বেকারত্ব (bn) (bekarotto)
• Bulgarian: безрабо́тица (bg) f (bezrabótica)
• Burmese: အလုပ်လက်မဲ့ဖြစ်ခြင်း (a.luplakmai.hprachkrang:)
• Catalan: atur (ca) m, parada forçosa f, manca de treball f, desocupació f
• Chechen: белхазалла (belxazalla)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 失業 / 失业 (sat¹ jip⁶)

  Hakka: 失業 / 失业 (sṳt-ngia̍p)

  Hokkien: 失業 / 失业 (zh-min-nan) (sit-gia̍p)

  Mandarin: 失業 / 失业 (zh) (shīyè)

• Chuvash: ӗҫсӗрлӗх (ĕśsĕrlĕh)
• Czech: nezaměstnanost (cs) f
• Danish: arbejdsløshed (da) c
• Dutch: werkloosheid (nl) f
• Esperanto: maldungo
• Estonian: tööpuudus
• Faroese: arbeiðsloysi n
• Finnish: työttömyys (fi)
• French: chômage (fr) m
• Georgian: უმუშევრობა (umuševroba)
• German: Arbeitslosigkeit (de) f, Werklosigkeit f, Beschäftigungslosigkeit 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 (jūmyssyzdyq)
• Khmer: និកម្មភាព (km) (nikammaʼphiəp), អកម្មភាព (ʼaʼkammaʼphiəp)
• Korean: 실업(失業) (ko) (sireop)
• Kurdish:

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

  Northern Kurdish: bêkarî (ku), bêşolî (ku), betalî (ku)

• Kyrgyz: жумушсуздук (ky) (jumuşsuzduk)
• Lao: ໄພຫວ່າງງານ (lo) (phai huāng 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:

  Cyrillic: ажилгүйдэл (mn) (ažilgüjdel)

• Norman: d'sempliai m (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: arbeidsledighet (no) m

  Nynorsk: arbeidsløyse (nn) f

• Ossetian: ӕнӕкуыст (ænæk°yst)
• Pashto: بې روزګاري f (be rozgāri), بېکاري (ps) f (bekāri)
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: بی‌کاری (bi-kâri), بیکاری (fa) (bikâri)

• Polish: bezrobocie (pl) n
• Portuguese: desemprego (pt) m
• Punjabi:

  Gurmukhi: ਬੇਕਾਰੀ m (bekārī)

  Western Punjabi: بی‌کاری m (bī-kārī)

• Romanian: șomaj (ro) n
• Russian: безрабо́тица (ru) f (bezrabótica), неза́нятость (ru) f (nezánjatostʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: cion-cosnaidh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: неза̀послено̄ст f

  Latin: 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 (bekori)
• Tatar: эшсезлек (tt) (eşsezlek)
• Thai: การว่างงาน (th) (gaan-wâang-ngaan)
• Turkish: işsizlik (tr)
• Turkmen: işsizlik
• Ukrainian: безробі́ття (uk) n (bezrobíttja), неза́йнятість f (nezájnjatistʹ)
• Urdu: بے روزْگاری f (be rozgārī), بیروزْگاری f (berozgārī), بے کاری f (be kārī), 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

• Raymond Williams (1983), “Unemployment”, in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, revised American edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1985, →ISBN, page 325.