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unemployment
DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)
n. & adj. — informal, dated, Administration
short form for unemployment insurance.
Type: 3. Semantic Change — Unemployment generally means being out of work. Now, in Canada, as well as in other locations (see OED-3, s.v. "unemployment" [2]), it is also used to mean 'unemployment benefit' or 'unemployment insurance'. In earlier quotations (see the 1987 quotation), the term appears most often in compounds such as "unemployment allowance" or the like. However, in later uses, the head noun is dropped and unemployment is understood as referring to unemployment insurance based on the context alone, e.g. "I can't claim unemployment" (see the 1994 quotation). With the name change of unemployment insurance to employment insurance legislated in 1996, the term is somewhat dated, yet still used in spoken discourse. Chart 1 shows that the phrase to be on unemployment is in North America most common in Canada.
See also COD-2, s.v. "unemployment"(3), which is marked "Cdn informal".
See also COD-2, s.v. "unemployment"(3), which is marked "Cdn informal".
Predominantly used in this sense in the spoken language (see, e.g., the 2013 quotation which is from an interview transcript of a Hamilton, ON, job seeker).
Quotations
1987
[But one of the main causes of the deficit is the very policy of fiscal restraint the Government has been following. That restraint has depressed real incomes, reduced output growth, increased unemployment payments and had a heavy negative impact on tax revenues.]
1994
"I lost my job back in December, and I can't claim unemployment because I didn't have the required 52 weeks."
2005
If I had resigned my job, I would not have received any compensation and could not even claim unemployment
References
- COD-2
- OED-3
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