Meaning & use
continuous employment
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Meaning
noununcountablebusinesslegalformal
A period of working for the same employer without a break, used especially to decide legal rights and benefits.
Grammar: No article and no plural: say 'continuous employment of two years', not 'a continuous employment'.
Patterns
- continuous employment with an employer
- two years' continuous employment
- a period of continuous employment
- continuous employment rights
You need two years of continuous employment to claim unfair dismissal.
Her continuous employment with the firm lasted twelve years.
A short break can end continuous employment and affect your benefits.
Common combinations
- two years' continuous employment
- The rule applies after two years' continuous employment.
- a period of continuous employment
- A period of continuous employment begins on your first day.
- break continuous employment
- Taking a new job can break continuous employment.
- continuous employment rights
- Continuous employment rights grow the longer you stay.
Synonyms and how they differ
- unbroken service
- A formal phrase meaning the same as continuous employment; it is often used in contracts and legal writing.
- length of service
- This measures how long you have worked somewhere but does not always require the service to be unbroken.
Opposites
Word family
- continuously adverb
- Without stopping or interruption.
- continuity noun
- The state of continuing without a break.
Commonly confused: continuous employment or contingent employment?
continuous employment vs contingent employment
Contingent employment is temporary or non-permanent work, while continuous employment is about working without a break for the same employer.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses 'continuous employment' correctly.
Choose one answer.
Option B is correct because 'continuous employment' is uncountable and means unbroken service. Option An is wrong because you cannot say 'a continuous employment'. Options C and D are wrong because the term has no plural form.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “continuous employment”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.