Word family noun employee employer employment ≠ unemployment unemployed employ adjective employed ≠ unemployed employable ≠ unemployable verb employ
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishemployeeem‧ploy‧ee /ɪmˈplɔɪ-iː, ˌemplɔɪˈiː/ ●●● S2 W2 noun [countable] BEWORKERsomeone who is paid to work for someone else SYN worker a government employeeCOLLOCATIONSadjectivesa full-time/part-time employeeWe now have 110 full-time employees.a permanent/temporary employeeSome of the temporary employees were later hired as permanent staff.a senior/junior employeeThe company also offers substantial bonuses to senior employees.a male/female employeeThe majority of the female employees are under 30.a former employeeThe company is being sued by three former employees.a retired employeeThey are for an increase in pension payments to retired employees.verbshave employeesThe Birmingham-based company has over 200 employees.recruit employees (=offer them jobs)We are recruiting employees for our IT division.lay off employees (=stop employing them because there is no work for them to do)Unions fear that many part-time employees will be laid off.make employees redundant (=stop employing them because there is no work for them to do)Crossways was nearing bankruptcy and had to make 720 employees redundant.dismiss/sack an employee (=stop employing them because they have behaved badly or broken a rule)Seven employees were dismissed for misconduct.an employee joins a company/firm etcEmployees who join the firm after April receive a percentage of the annual bonus.an employee leavesWhen a senior employee leaves the company, we hold an exit interview.Examples from the Corpus
employee• We are a multi-national corporation with 140,000 employees worldwide.• It laid off about 90 of its 170 employees.• Employees of American Airlines get generous reductions on the cost of flights.• Sara gets an employee discount at Carson's.• An employee needs to show that he has been in two years continuous employment.• The restrooms are for employees only.• a government employee.• Charles Fanniel, the union president, would prefer the comfort of guaranteed jobs for his employees.• Laid-off employees, of which there have been 105 since January, each received a severance package and a computer.• It is found that receipts are stamped with a firm's name and merely initialled by a cashier or other employee.• Now fairly standard practice across the country, the employee magazine was new to us when it was suggested.From Longman Business Dictionaryemployeeem‧ploy‧ee /ɪmˈplɔɪˌiː, ˌemplɔɪˈiː/ noun [countable]HUMAN RESOURCESJOB someone who is paid to work for an organization, especially someone who has a job of low rankA large proportion of the company’s employees work outside the UK.Managers and employees met several times to discuss our organisation structure. → public employee 