unemployment

English

Etymology

un- +‎ employment

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ʌn.ɪmˈplɔɪ.mənt/

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, numberous unemployments, and drug use.

Synonyms

• joblessness, worklessness, unwork

Antonyms

• employment

Derived terms

Terms derived from unemployment

• antiunemployment
• classical unemployment
• cyclical unemployment
• frictional unemployment
• funemployment

• Marxian unemployment
• seasonal unemployment
• structural unemployment
• technological unemployment

• unemployment benefit
• unemployment benefits
• unemployment insurance
• 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)
• Ido: neemployeso (io)
• Indonesian: pengangguran (id)
• Irish: dífhostaíocht
• Italian: disoccupazione (it) f
• Japanese: 失業 (ja) (しつぎょう, shitsugyō)
• Kazakh: жұмыссыздық (jumıssızdıq)
• Khmer: និកម្មភាព (km) (nikammaʾphiəp), អកម្មភាព (ʾaʾkammĕəʾphiəp)
• Korean: 실업 (ko) (sireop) (失業 (ko))
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: بێ ئیشی‎‎, بێکاری‎‎ (ku)

• Kyrgyz: жумушсуздук (ky) (cumuşsuzduk)
• 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
• Mongolian: ажилгүйдэл (mn) (ažilgüjdel)
• Norman: d'sempliai m (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: arbeidsledighet (no) m

  Nynorsk: arbeidsløyse (nn) f

• Ossetian: æнæкуыст (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: незапосленост f

  Roman: nezaposlenost (sh) f

• Slovak: nezamestnanosť f
• Slovene: brezposelnost f
• Spanish: desempleo (es) m, paro (es) (Spain)
• Swedish: arbetslöshet (sv)
• 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)
• Uzbek: ishsizlik (uz)
• Vietnamese: sự thất nghiệp (vi)
• Volapük: nenvob (vo)
• Yiddish: אַרבעטסלאָזיקייט‎‎ f (arbetslozikeyt)
• Zazaki: bêkariye f

Further reading

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