employment

From employ (itself from Middle French employer, from Middle French empleier, from Latin implicō (“enfold, involve, be connected with”), itself from in- + plicō (“fold”)) +‎ -ment

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˈplɔɪmənt/, /ɛmˈplɔɪmənt/

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employment (countable and uncountable, plural employments)

1. A use, purpose
   • 1873, John Stuart Mill, Autobiography of John Stuart Mill

     This new employment of his time caused no relaxation in his attention to my education.

2. The act of employing

   The personnel director handled the whole employment procedure

3. The state of being employed
   • 1853, Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener, in Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories, New York: Penguin Books, 1968; reprint 1995 as Bartleby, ISBN 0 14 60.0012 9, p.3:

     At the period just preceding the advent of Bartleby, I had two persons as copyists in my employment, and a promising lad as an office-boy.

4. The work or occupation for which one is used, and often paid
5. An activity to which one devotes time
6. (economics) The number or percentage of people at work

• employ
• hire

• unemployment
• underemployment