Okuzeka
Economics vocabulary · Jobs and Unemployment

Lay off

Meaning in economics, with examples

phrasal verbCore term

In economics, lay off means: To end someone's employment because there is not enough work or money, rather than because of anything the worker did wrong.

In Turkish: işten çıkarmak, işçi çıkarmak

How it is used

Very common in business and economic news. Companies lay off staff or lay staff off; workers are laid off. The noun is layoff (mainly US) or redundancy (UK): a wave of layoffs. It is more neutral than fire, which suggests the worker was at fault.

Example sentences

  1. The factory will lay off 300 workers as orders from Europe fall.

  2. A wave of layoffs in the tech sector has pushed up unemployment in the city.

Common collocations

  • lay off workers
  • be laid off
  • a wave of layoffs
  • mass layoffs
  • temporary layoffs
  • unemploymentThe situation of people who have no job but are available for work and actively looking for one; also the number or share of such people.
  • labour marketThe market in which workers offer their time and skills and employers hire them, setting the level of employment and wages.
  • recessionA significant fall in economic activity lasting months, with falling output, income and jobs; often defined as two quarters in a row of shrinking GDP.
  • downturnA period when economic activity, sales or prices fall or grow much more slowly; a general word that may or may not mean a full recession.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Jobs and Unemployment

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not financial advice.