workerwork‧er /ˈwɜːkə $ ˈwɜːrkər/ ●●● S2 W1 noun [countable] 
workers in the tourist industry reports from local aid workers → guest worker, social worker2[usually plural] someone who works in an organization and who is not a manager: conflicts between workers and management attacks on workers’ rights3 a good/hard/quick etc worker someone who works very well or quickly4the workers [plural] the members of the working class: the workers’ revolutionCOLLOCATIONSADJECTIVES/NOUN + workera skilled worker (=one who has special skills)· There is a shortage of skilled workers.an unskilled worker· Some ex-miners now had jobs as unskilled workers in factories.a part-time worker· A high percentage of the female staff were part-time workers.a full-time worker· The bureau has only two full-time workers.a temporary/casual worker (=working somewhere for a limited period of time)· Employees were fired and replaced with temporary workers.a manual/blue-collar worker (=someone who does physical work)· Manual workers often live close to their workplace.a white-collar worker (=someone who works in an office, a bank etc)· In the past, white-collar workers tended to work for one company for a long time, rather than changing jobs.a low-paid worker· As part-time, low-paid workers, many women earned very little.a factory/farm/office worker· Factory workers threatened strikes.a research/rescue/health etc worker· Rescue workers searched the rubble all night looking for survivors.a construction worker (=someone who builds buildings, bridges etc)THESAURUSworker someone who does a particular type of job, or someone who works for an organization but is not a manager: · a post-office worker· The workers are threatening to go on strike.· The report shows that male manual workers earn twice as much as female workers.employee someone who has a job, especially a permanent job, with a particular company or organization: · Employees of the airline get generous reductions on the cost of flights.member of staff/staff member one of the people who work for a company, organization, school etc – used especially in official contexts: · Training opportunities are available to all members of staff.· Several staff members complained about his increasing strange behaviour.colleague (also coworker especially American English) someone you work with – use this especially about people who do professional jobs in offices, schools etc: · I’d like you to meet a colleague of mine, Jean-Michel Blanc.· What should you do if a co-worker is injured?workforce all the people that work in a country, industry, or large organization: · Women make up 41% of the workforce.staff all the people who work in a company, organization, school etc: · The staff were clearly worried about rumours of job losses.· sales staff
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Ambulance workers threatened to refuse all calls for twenty-four hours on New Year's Eve.
- Despite the high unemployment rate, there is a shortage of skilled workers in some sectors.
- The report showed that blue collar workers lost ten days a year due to ill health, compared with five days for white collar workers.
- The report shows that male manual workers earn twice as much as female workers.
- There is increasing social mobility among senior white collar workers, who are able to move quite rapidly between organizations.
- Tony was a retired post-office worker.
- We need better communication between the management and the workers.
- We need more workers around here.
- About half the 6,000 white collar workers are likely to be made redundant in response to the shrinking market for coal.
- He says the country is not facing a shortage of farm workers, according to his spokesman Allen Kay.
- Many of the new workers are in training and should start fielding calls by late next week, she said.
- This pattern is confirmed by analyses of the process underlying the development of class consciousness among workers.
- Two new workers with similar performance records were brought in to replace them.
THESAURUS
someone who does a particular type of job, or someone who works for an organization but is not a manager: · a post-office worker· The workers are threatening to go on strike.· The report shows that male manual workers earn twice as much as female workers.
someone who has a job, especially a permanent job, with a particular company or organization: · Employees of the airline get generous reductions on the cost of flights.
one of the people who work for a company, organization, school etc – used especially in official contexts: · Training opportunities are available to all members of staff.· Several staff members complained about his increasing strange behaviour.
(also coworker especially American English) someone you work with – use this especially about people who do professional jobs in offices, schools etc: · I’d like you to meet a colleague of mine, Jean-Michel Blanc.· What should you do if a co-worker is injured?
all the people that work in a country, industry, or large organization: · Women make up 41% of the workforce.
all the people who work in a company, organization, school etc: · The staff were clearly worried about rumours of job losses.· sales staff
Longman Language Activatorsomeone who works for a company or organization someone who works for an organization but is not a manager: · We need better communication between the management and the workers.manual worker (=someone who does physical work, for example in a factory, rather than working in an office): · The report shows that male manual workers earn twice as much as female workers.post office/factory/office etc worker: · Tony was a retired post-office worker.· Ambulance workers threatened to refuse all calls for twenty-four hours on New Year's Eve.skilled/unskilled worker (=someone who has or does not have special skills): · Despite the high unemployment rate, there is a shortage of skilled workers in some sectors.white-collar workers (=people who work in offices, banks etc, rather than in factories or with their hands ): · There is increasing social mobility among senior white collar workers, who are able to move quite rapidly between organizations.blue collar workers (=people who do unskilled or manual work): · The report showed that blue collar workers lost ten days a year due to ill health, compared with five days for white collar workers.
someone who has a job, especially a permanent job, with a particular company or organization: · We are a multi-national corporation with 140,000 employees worldwide.employee of: · Employees of American Airlines get generous reductions on the cost of flights.
someone who is employed by a company, organization, school etc, along with other people: · Training opportunities are available to all members of staff.· At certain stages of a project, most staff members are expected to work additional hours when needed.· Mr Vickers has been with the firm for forty years, and is their longest-serving member of staff.senior/junior member of staff: · All employees have a formal annual interview with the senior member of staff responsible for their work.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRYADJECTIVES/NOUN + worker employment in the aerospace industry The ambulance crew removed him from the wreckage. low-paid manual jobs People in manual occupations have a lower life expectancy. Office staff need well-designed desks and chairs. the increased demand for office space postal workers seasonal jobs in the tourist industry
(=one who has special skills)· There is a shortage of skilled workers.
· Some ex-miners now had jobs as unskilled workers in factories.
· A high percentage of the female staff were part-time workers.
· The bureau has only two full-time workers.
(=working somewhere for a limited period of time)· Employees were fired and replaced with temporary workers.
(=someone who does physical work)· Manual workers often live close to their workplace.
(=someone who works in an office, a bank etc)· In the past, white-collar workers tended to work for one company for a long time, rather than changing jobs.
· As part-time, low-paid workers, many women earned very little.
· Factory workers threatened strikes.
· Rescue workers searched the rubble all night looking for survivors.
(=someone who builds buildings, bridges etc)
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES employment in the aerospace industry· Aid workers warned of a worsening situation.
The ambulance crew removed him from the wreckage. British English (=someone whose job is looking after people)· She's a part-time care worker with mentally ill adults.
(=someone who works for a charity, often without pay)· Charity workers say these reforms will not help the poor.
· Thousands of construction workers are out of work.
· The factory workers are threatening to go on strike.
· We rely on migrant farm workers to pick the crop.
· Many immigrant workers had to live in deprived areas.
low-paid manual jobs People in manual occupations have a lower life expectancy.· The strawberries are picked by migrant workers.
(=someone who performs miracles)· A doctor is just a person, not a miracle worker.
Office staff need well-designed desks and chairs. the increased demand for office space postal workers· The relief workers have to bring in clean drinking water by tanker.
· Rescue workers are searching through the rubble for survivors.
· The company’s actions are a violation of workers’ rights.
seasonal jobs in the tourist industry· The bank continued to shed workers.
· The meetings are at different times so that shift workers have an opportunity to attend.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE· Support teams work with employers and fellow workers in a training programme and are also on call if there are problems.· Not least, the fact that you've deserted your fellow workers.· For a number of years she patiently withstood the abuse of her employers and fellow workers, who ridiculed her religious habits.· Their fellow worker Paul Sinclair, a 20-a-day man, takes the stairwell option.· The problem occurs in the patient who has an occasional seizure, which alarms fellow workers and disrupts work activities.· Above all the farm worker could establish his reputation as a skilled and knowledgeable craftsman among his fellow workers.· Pray that the missionary may refuse to hear any accusations from Satan against his fellow workers and believers.
· London attracts foreign legion London is becoming the main choice of destination for foreign workers.· Apply slightly tougher standards for employers who hire temporary foreign workers for specialty jobs in the high-tech industry and elsewhere.· Five foreign aid workers were murdered and others came under fire.· Cities compete for prime-pick foreign workers as they would for a foreign auto plant.· New international links are planned to help foreign workers come and go.
· Since then he has shown every sign of being a pragmatist, an adroit politician and a very hard worker.· He is supposedly not the hardest worker ever.· She was known to be very tough and a very hard worker.· He made Mrs Timms look uninterested in her store, the Reliance Market, and she was a hard worker.· He was a good, hard worker.· Children who understand the importance of work tend to imitate their parents and become hard workers themselves.
· The third high-risk group comprises manual workers without hobbies and interests, whose entire social contact has been based on their workplace.· The equivalent figures for manual workers other than general labourers show a reverse pattern.· Relatively few had any A-level passes and only one in seven were skilled manual workers.· But no woman manual workers in the industry yet earn as much as any of the men.· Manufacturing industry has declined, whilst service industries, which employ a lower proportion of manual workers, have expanded.· Fifteen hundred manual workers will have to decide whether to cross picket lines tomorrow morning.· For semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers, the proportion of members experiencing unemployment almost doubled: from 18 to 32 percent.
· When Anthony was a boy the family arrived in California as migrant workers picking grapes.· Some say migrant workers knock on their doors asking for water and food.· More than one-third of the students came from migrant worker families.· Grievances were felt particularly strongly by migrant workers who bore the brunt of the hardship because they were almost completely unorganized.· Lesser politicians had a chance to become migrant workers instead of just talking about them.· A joint system of security for migrant workers had been introduced in 1958.· They recognized that the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers have their human dimension.
· Thus for large numbers of older workers, poverty is experienced to the official pension ages.· I see old skulls, old bones of workers.· It is particularly important for older workers over the age of 50, but not confined to this group.· So these older workers have been immune to big changes in work-related phenomena.· Higher proportions of older unemployed workers experience long unemployment durations now than in the late 1970's.· After all, the 27-year-old farm worker fully intended to return to work when his 30-minute lunch break was over.· So, the first requirement is that older workers should be included in the drive for a more skilled workforce.· The spring 1968 strikes mainly involved older, skilled workers.
· The comparison of results in groups D and E highlights the important assessment role of occupational therapists as cited by other workers.· Variable patterns of formaldehyde exposure may well account for this inconsistency in relation to other workers in formaldehyde-based industries.· Social workers and other primary care workers are well placed to identify people who have long-term social difficulties and poor coping resources.· Miners in general worked fewer hours than other workers.· This was just a warning. Other workers are copying them.· At the beginning the immigrants' lack of experience and poor organization hampered mobilization, and so other workers struck first.· One or two other workers made attempts at isolating the antibacterial substance from Penicillium during the 1930s.· Yet other workers were employed in industry on a purely seasonal basis.
· The five unions who called the indefinite strike said up to 80 percent of postal workers stayed away from work in some areas.· Also patron of clerics, diplomats, messengers, postal workers, radio workers, telecommunications workers, and television workers.· Workers in other public enterprises were also prevented from striking although this did not stop strikes by postal and railway workers.· The deal will affect 140,000 postal and clerical workers.
· Policies of economic redistribution to the less well off met with resistance from skilled workers at a time of low economic growth.· It is struggling to find enough skilled workers and key pieces of equipment and has had to put some customers on allocation.· At present the work focuses on developing comparative lists of qualifications and job descriptions for occupations at the skilled worker level.· In San Diego, the shortage of skilled workers is acute.· Unlike casual labour, skilled workers were heir to a tradition of militancy.· Foreign-born skilled workers have contributed to this declining wage, as well.· As a result, in many countries, the wage gap between lowly and highly skilled workers has widened sharply.· Too many skilled workers for too few skilled jobs are driving down salaries.
· Our doctors and nurses need far more counselling in this area, as do our social workers and priests.· The women are social workers, reporters, filmmakers, lawyers, counselors, activists and nurses.· Again, applications may be made by the nearest relative or an approved social worker and two medical recommendations are required.· The groups raise money and distribute it to help those in need, mainly through social workers.· The social worker discussed with Enid the possibility of planning such events into her week.· These social workers were based in the borough's Special Services Team.· I got a social worker and she suggested I get a bus pass, so I could get to town.· The jury heard how a social worker was horrifically knifed to death on a late-night train.
· Professional men, for example, see half as many friends again as unskilled workers.· As they close down, they lay off more unskilled than skilled workers, since that is what they employ.· Semi-skilled and unskilled workers were more willing to relocate than management and professional staff.· As a result, when import-competing industries contract, they do not in fact lay off proportionally more unskilled than skilled workers.· This was inpart due to the emergence of New Unionism which sought to organize unskilled workers.· At about the same time, in 1884, the trade union movement began to reach poorer, unskilled workers.· Are they both unskilled workers or is she in a higher class than her husband?· For low-skilled or unskilled workers, Reich notes, technology is taking away jobs.
· The party and its leaders were defended neither by white nor blue-collar workers nor kolkhoz farmers.· Negro and white civil rights workers.· I counted only six white workers in the factory, half of which seemed to be of below average intelligence.· About half the 6,000 white collar workers are likely to be made redundant in response to the shrinking market for coal.· Almost thirty percent of the the population are employers, managers or white collar workers with just under six percent unskilled labourers.· In 1975-7, 9 percent of young white workers had been unemployed during a twelve-month period.· The report demonstrated that the 1980s austerity measures had disproportionately affected blue collar workers in comparison with white collar workers.
· Early retirement had also long been advocated as a means of cutting unemployment and of encouraging the promotion of younger workers.· He describes clusters of young workers dressed in white lab coats learning about the latest mechanical instrument introduced in the plant.· Mature workers have a breadth of experience lacking in younger workers.· But the Act made no specific reference to special provision for young workers.· The system is overwhelmed by too many retirees and not enough younger workers to pay for their benefits.· Michael Perrin, a young research worker who had just returned to Winnington from Amsterdam took his place.· Employers in the service industry who check grades before hiring young workers have a more productive workforce.
NOUN· Now aid workers are trying to ensure the children's own health and welfare.· The aid workers are confined to their compounds and an evacuation from Kisangani is now likely.· As a volunteer aid worker I was a failure.· Diplomats and aid workers say they believe the rebels may take Kisangani within days.· Five foreign aid workers were murdered and others came under fire.· Few foreign aid workers have dared to venture into Helmund province.
· Hazards associated with heating and walking are examples of matters to which care workers must attend.· Maritza started to work with the foster care workers to get her children back.· The revised guidelines are expected to avoid giving care workers specific advice on how to physically restrain absconders.· Health care workers should have a tuberculin skin test at least every two years.· These wider changes add to the need to reassess the working relations of the central health care workers - doctors and nurses.· Further information: Recruiting and employing a personal care worker by M Dunne.· It hasn't been easy. CARE workers on the ground are constantly shadowed by armed guards.· The care of stroke patients involves a plethora of different health and social care workers.
· Consequently, the fall in demand for building materials and construction workers will generate downward multiplier effects on other types of investment.· Rodia, an untrained construction worker and a free-thinking anarchist, died in 1965.· He defends prevailing wage laws for skilled construction workers and supports increasing the minimum wage.· A protest march of an estimated 1,000 construction workers took place on April 7 in Lima.· They built into the cliffs. Construction workers use scaffolds today to build multiple-story apartments.· A construction worker in the year 2084 is haunted by recurring dreams of a previous existence on Mars.· I have a blue-tinged vocabulary that could make a construction worker blush.
· A glossy magazine designed to satisfy the CEOs ego may go wide of the mark with the factory workers.· Money is tight; pensioners, the army and factory workers have not been paid.· Apart from their costumes and the props that they carried, they might have been factory workers anywhere.· Elsewhere, factory workers toiled twelve hours a day, six days a week, and their hollow-eyed children worked with them.· Some have more factory workers and others have more civil servants, and so on.· The factory worker no longer manipulates the sheet of steel; he manipulates the data about the steel.· All the cars that turn up are made in sheds in the evening by postmen and factory workers.· Where are the sons of longshoremen and black factory workers from the South?
· He says the country is not facing a shortage of farm workers, according to his spokesman Allen Kay.· Protest was immediate and desperate from the wives of farm workers and miners.· They therefore attracted labour without any hindrance, providing jerry-built, damp and insanitary hovels for letting to local farm workers.· And profitable enough to employ 6 farm workers.· It was being driven towards Weatherbury by two farm workers, who had not noticed Gabriel.· For many farm workers the major problem introduced by mechanization has been an increase in the loneliness of the job.· Instead the newcomers tend to evaluate the farm worker and the other villagers on the basis of urban criteria for allocating prestige.
· All however see the link between the local health situation and the plight of health workers and the national and international situation.· She has been diagnosed with tuberculosis, kidney problems and malnutrition, health workers say.· Some see this as racism on the part of health workers.· There was a shortage of trained health workers in all categories.· We talked to health workers and campesinos all over the country.· But after the health workers returned to Kathmandu little changed.· Understandably, health workers and the public are confused.· Much of this information can be acquired by health workers, supervisors and managers in their work.
· The man was only an office worker after all.· Today, the pension plan for the owner and ten office workers is in serious trouble.· Lisa would presumably encourage office workers to produce documents blending text and graphics.· Teachers, doctors and office workers are no longer being paid.· It pays the salaries of hundreds of thousands of office workers and soldiers.· In the present case a post office worker sustained an injury on his left shin.· You had to see it, this office building full of office workers, bureaucrats, rising in the air.
· The Avon Papers are now available for study by research workers on application to the University Library.· There are plenty of good recent reviews aimed at research workers covering at least some of the issues I was starting to address.· Michael Perrin, a young research worker who had just returned to Winnington from Amsterdam took his place.· And without the new grant for golden hellos the World would have lost its research workers.· First, research workers must be absolutely sure they know what the statistics are about.· At this stage, then, the general position has been stated as to how research workers should approach their task.· Unlike Fleming, Florey found the atmosphere of a London teaching hospital uncongenial and the conflicts between clinicians and research workers discouraging.· These details then lead the research worker on to the next step, which is that of drawing the threads together.
VERB· And profitable enough to employ 6 farm workers.· Two months ago, his company opened a Cambridge office that employs seven workers.· If the weekly wage were £15, however, the firm would employ four workers.· After starting with a handful, the factory now employs 2, 800 workers.· The business will employ 36 workers at first with plans to expand.· The combined company would employ 25, 000 workers in 50 countries.· Heather Wilkinson employs a lot of workers and not only waitresses.· The industry employs 769, 000 workers in five counties.
· Employers who hire a worker must contact the federal government, which checks to ensure that the new bloke has his papers.· What if they hire all their campaign workers?· It also spent too much on monthly advertising and hired too many workers at high salaries, analysts said.· Giant abruptly decided not to hire the temporary replacement workers.· Construction managers determine the labor requirements and, in some cases, supervise or monitor the hiring and dismissal of workers.· An executive order to revoke federal contracts of businesses that hire illegal workers.
· This is involuntary and undesirable and many firms will react to it by reducing output and laying off workers.· The weak domestic manufacturing sector is reeling too: 150 factories closed last year, laying off 30,000 workers.· And companies that lay off workers would have to pay two months of severance for every year of service.· The resulting fall in demand also forced other companies to trim back production and lay off workers.· Where demand was shrinking, firms would close down or lay off workers and contract operations.· In recent months the car industry has laid off thousands of workers and put many more on short time.· E canceled plans to lay off 800 workers.
· Class 1 contributions are paid by workers in employment and are deducted from their pay at the statutory rates.· Serigraph also pays workers a cross-training bonus of 25 an hour if they learn how to operate a new piece of equipment.· Recently the Arbroath engineering firm Giddings and Lewis paid off 90 workers.· Government and industry are behind by some $ 4 billion in paying workers, from coal miners to teachers.· In fact pensions are not paid by workers, but from the economy as a whole.· Often, the government would do better just to pay displaced workers to stay home rather than artificially keep the business afloat.· Employers escape paying national-insurance contributions for workers on less than £56 a week.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRYPHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES► somebody is a fast worker► pink-collar jobs/workers/industries etc► up the workers!/up the reds! etc
- He is supposedly not the hardest worker ever.
- He made Mrs Timms look uninterested in her store, the Reliance Market, and she was a hard worker.
- He was a good, hard worker.
- She was known to be very tough and a very hard worker.
- She was such a hard worker and a wonderful cook.
- The girl was a good worker who came and went quietly about her business.
- the workers' revolution
- But the workers have finally had to surrender, because there are fewer and fewer jobs.
- In almost all businesses and institutions, work and the workers that do it are organized ineffectively.
- My point was that they could power their way out of their problems with the latent potential among the workers.
- Recognizing a manoeuvre on the part of the company to avoid indemnity pay, the workers occupied the factory.
- Still the previous spills of asbestos in the factory had not led to any action by the workers.
- The union argues that the workers deserve a greater share of Boeing's prosperity.
- Unable to get a drink, the workers were standing around in the street listening to pacifist orators.
- When we looked at the weekly pay that the workers had been getting in 1980, I was astounded.
- Ancillary staff All educational establishments are dependent for their day-to-day running on the ancillary staff.
- Could parents force a local authority to keep schools open during a strike of ancillary workers?
- It is the governors, too, who manage the teaching and ancillary staff.
- No hospital can function well without receptionists, cleaners, administrators, porters and all the other ancillary staff.
- Often the only staff who live within the school's catchment area are the caretaker and the ancillary workers.
- The providers of domestic, portering and ward ancillary staff are also subjected to pressure from staff for the peak-holiday periods.
- As the permanent workplace becomes a shifting work space, daily face-to-face contact with fellow workers is increasingly sporadic.
- Host a quiz night for your fellow students.
- Not all of my fellow students were as pleased with me, though.
- Religion may affect employees' attitudes to their jobs and their relationships with expatriates and fellow countrymen.
- She and her fellow students were told that their mission was to free the peasants from feudalism.
- Stallabrass seems alienated from the labour of his fellow workers.
- To help you relate to your fellow students. 2.
- Workshops are an ideal opportunity to meet tutors and exchange ideas with fellow students.
- For the mass of the population, indeed, the shift of interest arguably went in the other direction.
- Such feelings developed very much within the context of the lived experience of the mass of the population.
WORD FAMILYnounworkworkaholicworkerworkingworkingsadjectiveworkable ≠ unworkableoverworkedworkingverbworkrework
1someone who does a job, especially a particular type of job: workers in the tourist industry reports from local aid workers → guest worker, social worker2[usually plural] someone who works in an organization and who is not a manager: conflicts between workers and management attacks on workers’ rights3 a good/hard/quick etc worker someone who works very well or quickly4the workers [plural] the members of the working class: the workers’ revolutionCOLLOCATIONSADJECTIVES/NOUN + workera skilled worker (=one who has special skills)· There is a shortage of skilled workers.an unskilled worker· Some ex-miners now had jobs as unskilled workers in factories.a part-time worker· A high percentage of the female staff were part-time workers.a full-time worker· The bureau has only two full-time workers.a temporary/casual worker (=working somewhere for a limited period of time)· Employees were fired and replaced with temporary workers.a manual/blue-collar worker (=someone who does physical work)· Manual workers often live close to their workplace.a white-collar worker (=someone who works in an office, a bank etc)· In the past, white-collar workers tended to work for one company for a long time, rather than changing jobs.a low-paid worker· As part-time, low-paid workers, many women earned very little.a factory/farm/office worker· Factory workers threatened strikes.a research/rescue/health etc worker· Rescue workers searched the rubble all night looking for survivors.a construction worker (=someone who builds buildings, bridges etc)THESAURUSworker someone who does a particular type of job, or someone who works for an organization but is not a manager: · a post-office worker· The workers are threatening to go on strike.· The report shows that male manual workers earn twice as much as female workers.employee someone who has a job, especially a permanent job, with a particular company or organization: · Employees of the airline get generous reductions on the cost of flights.member of staff/staff member one of the people who work for a company, organization, school etc – used especially in official contexts: · Training opportunities are available to all members of staff.· Several staff members complained about his increasing strange behaviour.colleague (also coworker especially American English) someone you work with – use this especially about people who do professional jobs in offices, schools etc: · I’d like you to meet a colleague of mine, Jean-Michel Blanc.· What should you do if a co-worker is injured?workforce all the people that work in a country, industry, or large organization: · Women make up 41% of the workforce.staff all the people who work in a company, organization, school etc: · The staff were clearly worried about rumours of job losses.· sales staff