From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmake-workˈmake-work noun [uncountable] American EnglishBUSY/HAVE A LOT TO DO work that is not important but is given to people to keep them busy
Examples from the Corpus
make-work• Unfortunately, when Graham left office Governor Martinez ignored the system, and it quickly degenerated into make-work.• Should we ask people to risk their lives for the sake of make-work?• Another 1.8 million people are in what amounts to make-work jobs.From Longman Business Dictionarymake-workˈmake-work noun [uncountable] American English work that is not important but is given to people to keep them busyThey want to move from their make-work jobs into more challenging ones. 