unemployed
adjective
un·em·ployed
ˌən-im-ˈplȯid 
: not employed:
a
: not being used
unemployed machines
b
: not engaged in a gainful occupation
an unemployed teacher seeking work
15% of the workforce was unemployed.
c
: not invested
unemployed capital
unemployed
noun
Examples of unemployed in a Sentence
the plant closings left a significant portion of the town's population unemployed
Recent Examples on the Web
Thursday’s report also showed that people continue to stay unemployed for longer: The number of continuing claims, which are filed by Americans who have received at least a week or more of jobless benefits, climbed by 83,000 to 1.916 million, the highest level since November 2021.
—
Alicia Wallace, CNN Money, 2 May 2025
Sweden's Örebro Mass Shooting In February, Sweden experienced its deadliest mass shooting when a 35-year-old unemployed man opened fire at an adult education center in the city of Örebro, killing 10 students and teachers.
—Tom Rogers, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Apr. 2025
Read More: The Fashion Fight That Exposes the Flaw in Trump's Tariff Logic
But New Bedford’s economic catastrophe soon gave it an unexpected industrial advantage: numerous unemployed workers with nowhere to turn but the factory floor.
— Made By History, Time, 21 Apr. 2025
After Moscow banned most Western tech companies in March 2022, hundreds of thousands of Russian IT workers suddenly became unemployed.
—Alexander Cooley, Foreign Affairs, 16 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unemployed
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Alicia Wallace, CNN Money, 2 May 2025
Sweden's Örebro Mass Shooting In February, Sweden experienced its deadliest mass shooting when a 35-year-old unemployed man opened fire at an adult education center in the city of Örebro, killing 10 students and teachers.
—Tom Rogers, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Apr. 2025
Read More: The Fashion Fight That Exposes the Flaw in Trump's Tariff Logic
But New Bedford’s economic catastrophe soon gave it an unexpected industrial advantage: numerous unemployed workers with nowhere to turn but the factory floor.
— Made By History, Time, 21 Apr. 2025
After Moscow banned most Western tech companies in March 2022, hundreds of thousands of Russian IT workers suddenly became unemployed.
—Alexander Cooley, Foreign Affairs, 16 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unemployed
Cite this Entry
“Unemployed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unemployed. Accessed 20 May. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
unemployed
adjective
un·em·ployed
ˌən-im-ˈplȯid
1
: not being used
unemployed tools
2
: not employed : having no job
unemployed workers
unemployed
noun
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share