Meanings
- uncountableA period of unemployment spent pursuing recreational activities or hobbies.
1 more example
Aubrey Howell, who'd tweeted about funemployment shortly after being laid off as the manager of a Nashville tea shop in 2009, and was featured in a Los Angeles Times story soon afterward, told me half a year later that she initially saw the layoff as an opportunity to clear her head, refocus, and "go after what I'm really passionate about" — music and graphic design.
2011, Don Peck, Pinched: How the Great Recession Has Narrowed Our Futures & What We Can Do About It, Crown Publishers, →ISBN, page 72
Origin
Blend of fun + unemployment.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
funemployment. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/funemployment
“funemployment.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/funemployment. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “funemployment,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/funemployment.
Source: funemployment on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.