employment

Etymology

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.

noun

1. The work or occupation for which one is used, and often paid
2. The act of employing
3. A use, purpose
   This new employment of his time caused no relaxation in his attention to my education. 1873, John Stuart Mill, Autobiography of John Stuart Mill
   The personnel director handled the whole employment procedure
4. The state of being employed
   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. 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
5. An activity to which one devotes time
6. (economics) The number or percentage of people at work