workforce

See also: work force

English

Alternative forms

• work force

Etymology

From work +‎ force.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɝk.foɹs/, [ˈwɚk.fo̞ɹs]
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɜːk.fɔːs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ˈwɝk.fo(ː)ɹs/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ˈwɜːk.foəs/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)s

Noun

workforce (plural workforces)

1. All the workers employed by a specific organization or state, or on a specific project.
   • 2020 December 2, Stefanie Foster, “Network News: Success of major projects hinges on fixing skills crisis”, in Rail, page 8:

     The rail sector's ageing workforce (28% of workers are over 50 years old) means that about 15,000 people could retire from the industry by 2025.

2. The total population of a country or region that is employed or employable.

Synonyms

• manpower
• jobforce
• labour force

Translations

workers employed by an organization

• Arabic: قُوَّة عَمَل f (quwwat ʕamal)
• Azerbaijani: işçi qüvvəsi
• Belarusian: працо́ўная сі́ла f (pracóŭnaja síla)
• Bulgarian: рабо́тна си́ла f (rabótna síla)
• Catalan: mà d'obra f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 勞動力 / 劳动力 (zh) (láodònglì), 員工 / 员工 (zh) (yuángōng)

• Czech: pracovní síla f
• Danish: arbejdsstyrke c
• Dutch: werkkracht (nl) f
• Finnish: työvoima (fi)
• French: main-d’œuvre (fr) f, personnel (fr) m, effectif (fr) m
• Galician: man de obra (gl)
• German: Belegschaft (de) f, Arbeitskräfte (de) f pl
• Hungarian: munkaerő (hu)
• Indonesian: angkatan kerja (id), tenaga kerja (id)
• Ingrian: tööväki
• Italian: forza lavoro (it) f, manodopera (it) f
• Japanese: 労働力 (ja) (ろうどうりょく, rōdōryoku), 労働人口 (ろうどうじんこう, rōdō jinkō)
• Korean: 노동력(勞動力) (ko) (nodongnyeok), 로동력(勞動力) (ko) (rodongnyeok) (North Korea)
• Lithuanian: darbo jėga f
• Macedonian: ра́ботна си́ла f (rábotna síla)
• Malay: tenaga kerja
• Maori: taimahi, rāngaimahi
• Mongolian: ажиллах хүч (ažillax xüč)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: arbeidsstyrke (no) m

  Nynorsk: arbeidsstyrke m

• Persian: نیروی کار (niru-ye kâr)
• Polish: siła robocza (pl) f
• Portuguese: mão de obra (pt) f
• Russian: рабо́чая си́ла (ru) f (rabóčaja síla), трудовы́е ресу́рсы m pl (trudovýje resúrsy), штат (ru) m (štat), персона́л (ru) m (personál)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: радна снага f

  Roman: radna snaga f

• Slovak: pracovná sila f
• Slovene: delovna sila f
• Spanish: mano de obra (es) f, fuerza laboral f, fuerza de trabajo f, población activa (es) f
• Swedish: arbetskraft (sv) c, arbetsstyrka (sv) c
• Turkish: işgücü (tr)
• Ukrainian: робо́ча си́ла (uk) (robóča sýla)
• Vietnamese: lực lượng lao động
• Welsh: gweithlu m