Antedating of "Unemployment"

[Shapiro, Fred]

unemployment (OED 1888)

1789 _Norfolk Chronicle_ 12 Dec. 2 (British Newspapers 1600-1950)  To contemplate the contingency of unemployment -- the helplessness of disease -- and the infirmities of age, without the dread of becoming a burden to their friends and families, or of sacrificing their independence by drooping under the subsistance of the poor-rate, which such salutary and well-regulated institutions might much reduce, and consequently promote the general prosperity [etc.]

Fred Shapiro

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