unemployment compensation

noun

: compensation paid at regular intervals (as by a government agency) to an unemployed worker and especially one who has been laid off

called also unemployment benefit

Examples of unemployment compensation in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And when an independent contractor leaves, for whatever reason, there is generally no severance or unemployment compensation payable. —Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes.com, 6 June 2025

Initial claims for unemployment compensation unexpectedly increased last week as angst over the jobs market accelerates, the Labor Department reported Thursday. —Sean Conlon,pia Singh, CNBC, 4 June 2025

Senate Republicans said giving strikers access to unemployment would add to the costs of employers, who pay premiums for unemployment compensation based on usage, and incentivize workers to strike. —Mark Pazniokas, Hartford Courant, 29 May 2025

The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank largely funded by unions, says the impact would be less than 1% of unemployment compensation expenditures, and offering jobless benefits would stabilize a local economy hit by a strike. —Mark Pazniokas, Hartford Courant, 29 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1935, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for unemployment compensation

• deindustrialization
• immunoprecipitation
• individualisation
• individualization
• institutionalisation
• institutionalization
• internationalization
• neovascularization
• operationalization
• abbreviation
• abomination
• acceleration

Legal Definition

unemployment compensation

noun

un·​em·​ploy·​ment compensation

: compensation paid at regular intervals (as by a state agency) to an unemployed worker and especially one who has been laid off

called also unemployment benefit

Note: Unemployment compensation is usually a fixed percentage of the former wages of an unemployed worker.