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Human Resources vocabulary · Leaving a Company

Lay off

Meaning in human resources, with examples

/ˌleɪ ˈɒf/phrasal verbCommon term

In human resources, lay off means: To end workers' employment because there is not enough work or money, not because of anything they did wrong. The noun is layoff.

In Turkish: işten çıkarmak, toplu işten çıkarma yapmak

How it is used

Mainly American but widely understood. Companies lay off staff or lay people off, and workers get laid off. Large layoffs often make the news. In older British use it could mean a temporary stop to work without pay.

Example sentences

  1. The company plans to lay off 200 workers after losing the contract.

  2. There were three rounds of layoffs at my last company.

Common collocations

  • lay off staff
  • be laid off
  • mass layoffs
  • a round of layoffs
  • temporary layoff
  • redundancyThe ending of someone's employment because their job is no longer needed, for example after a restructure, a closure or a fall in work.
  • severance payMoney an employer pays to an employee whose job has been ended, often based on how long they worked there.
  • terminationThe ending of an employment contract, usually by the employer, but in a wider sense for any reason, including resignation or the end of a fixed term.
  • headcountThe number of people employed by a company or team, often used when planning budgets and deciding whether new jobs can be created.

This word in other fields

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

More terms: Leaving a Company

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