unemployed (adj.)

1600, "at leisure, not occupied," from un- (1) "not" + past participle of employ (v.). Meaning "temporarily out of work" is from 1660s. There seems not to have been a verb *unemploy, but disemploy was used (1610s). The noun meaning "unemployed persons collectively" is from 1782.

No man has hired us

With pocketed hands

And lowered faces

We stand about in open places

And shiver in unlit rooms ...

[T.S. Eliot, from "Choruses from the Rock"]