workforce

or work force

[ wurk-fawrs ]

noun

1. the total number of workers in a specific undertaking:

   a holiday for the company's workforce.

2. the total number of people employed or employable:

   a sharp increase in the nation's workforce.

workforce

/ ˈwɜːkˌfɔːs /

noun

1. the total number of workers employed by a company on a specific job, project, etc
2. the total number of people who could be employed

   the country's workforce is growing rapidly

Word History and Origins

Origin of workforce¹

First recorded in 1940–45; work ( def ) + force ( def )

Example Sentences

The company said its revenue rose by sixfold, its workforce tripled to more than 150 people and the number of lenders on its platform doubled over the past year.

From TechCrunch

The Labor Department investigator concluded that the company was violating federal law and cheating its workforce.

From ProPublica

They often also went to libraries or workforce centers to search for jobs online.

From Popular-Science

Anticipating that the remote working trend will stick even if the virus is eliminated, TripActions CEO Ariel Cohen says the company anticipates more group travel as diasporic workforces look to meet up quarterly or weekly.

From Fortune

Slowly, they’re looking to increase female participation in the workforce — it has risen from 11 percent to nearly 18 percent over the past decade in the UAE, and more marginally in Saudi Arabia, according to the World Bank.

From Ozy

By the end of the construction period, the number of deaths had reached roughly twenty percent of the workforce.

From The Daily Beast

Brennan is expected to address the CIA workforce at headquarters on Tuesday.

From The Daily Beast

This workforce is being legalized at a time of unusual economic distress for the working class.

From The Daily Beast

Companies are also intolerant of violence in the workplace because it undermines workforce stability and hampers productivity.

From The Daily Beast

Informal workers make up  over half the workforce in much of urban African.

From The Daily Beast

Officially, in excess of one third of the workforce is unemployed.

From Project Gutenberg

But literacy projected its characteristics onto the entire activity, thus making a literate workforce desirable.

From Project Gutenberg

Schools used to be able to prepare students to find their place in the workforce even before graduation.

From Project Gutenberg

Others were drained of almost one half of the growth in their educated workforce (for instance, Israel during the 1980s).

From Project Gutenberg

With cheap, educated workforce – they can monopolize basic data processing and telecommunications functions worldwide.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• labor pool
• personnel