From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgainful employment/work/activitygainful employment/work/activityformalBEWORK FOR somebody work or activity for which you are paid → gainful
Examples from the Corpus
gainful employment/work/activity• Both surveys showed that for many people poverty was a way of life even when they were in gainful employment.• How does he survive without gainful employment?• In each decade of the twentieth century, fewer men over 65 have been entered in the censuses as in gainful employment.• Some of us actually have gainful employment.• The potential for a recession across most regions of the world will have ramifications for the prospects of expatriates in gainful employment.• When in low spirits, seek gainful employment.• It occurred to him that it might be easier to find gainful employment in Cornwall.• Indeed, it has even become fashionable for women to choose dependency by repudiating ambition and gainful employment once they have children. 