make-work jobs
Artificially created positions
Make-work jobs are positions created primarily to give people employment rather than to accomplish necessary tasks.
The work itself may be trivial, redundant, or artificially invented: The program created make-work jobs raking leaves that would blow away anyway.
The term is usually dismissive, implying the labor has little real value beyond keeping workers busy or reducing unemployment statistics.
- boondoggleWasteful, impractical endeavor
- busyworkMeaningless assigned tasks
- sinecuresPositions requiring little labor
- unnecessaryNot essential or required
- inefficientPoor at using resources
underemployment · administrivia · New Deal programs · rationalization · Keynesian economics · rubber-stamping · time-killers · time clock · featherbedding · WPA · occupations · gig economy · positions · burnout · Civilian Conservation Corps · alienation · social stigma · paper-pushing