demploi

Demploi is a French genitive construction formed with the preposition de and the noun emploi, which means employment or job. In practice, d’emploi functions as a qualifier that links a noun to the realm of work, and it appears in a wide range of standard expressions. Common examples include offre d’emploi (job offer), demande d’emploi (job application), création d’emplois (job creation), changement d’emploi (job change), statut d’emploi (employment status), and marché de l’emploi (labor market). The form d’emploi is used regardless of whether the corresponding English term is singular or plural, though French phrases often vary in number with the noun.

Etymology and scope: The word emploi comes from Old French emploi, meaning use, occupation, or employment. The possessive-like construction d’emploi signals that the noun it modifies relates to work or the world of work. This usage is widespread in legal, administrative, and economic language, where precise designation of employment-related concepts is important. It is not a standalone concept; rather, it is a grammatical device that forms part of compound nouns and adjectives.

Orthography and usage notes: When followed by a vowel, de becomes d’ in d’emploi. The phrase is typically translated in context to retain natural English, for example, “offre d’emploi” as “job offer” and “protection d’emploi” as “job protection.” In many cases d’emploi is interchangeable with phrases such as relatif à l’emploi or lié à l’emploi, but it remains the conventional form in fixed expressions.

See also: Employment, labour market, job offer, job application, employment law.