unemployment

n. state of not being employed; rate of unemployment (in a region, population, etc.)

Unemployment is the state in which a worker wants, but is unable, to work. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed workers divided by the total civilian labor force. The unemployment rate is also used in economic studies and economic indexes such as the Conference Board's Index of Leading Indicators.
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Unemployment, n the state of being without a job or compensation for work, usually involuntarily. [more]Unemployment - Community and Resources

Noun
1. the state of being unemployed or not having a job; "unemployment is a serious social evil"; "the rate of unemployment is an indicator of the health of an economy"
(antonym) employment, employ
(hypernym) state

A situation which exists when members of the labor force wish to work at the prevailing wage or salary rates for their skills, but cannot get a job. The concept thus refers to "involuntary" unemployment only, rather than the voluntary decision of someone to choose leisure (or productive activity outside the cash economy such as housewifery) rather than gainful employment at prevailing rates of pay. Most post-World War II governments have made it a major goal of their economic policies to keep total unemployment in their national economies at relatively low levels (subject to certain practical constraints and trade-offs imposed by their pursuit of other important goals such as economic growth, low inflation , competitiveness in international trade, and so on).
[See also: unemployment rate , Phillips' curve , trade-off , macroeconomics ]