funemployment
n. A period of joblessness that a person uses for leisure and other fun activities.
Other Forms
Examples
2010
A growing group of jobless across the nation are joining a self-proclaimed movement: 'funemployment.’ It’s a group of jovial unemployed who say they’re finally doing what they’ve always wanted to do — whether it is blogging or starting a nonprofit.
—Elizabeth Prann, “The Happy Unemployed,” Liveshots (Fox News), July 18, 2010
2010
For the record, Dustin approaches his sundry temp jobs, which range from children's party clown to ice sculpture apprentice, with energy and enthusiasm…He's also quite content to take "funemployment" to heart. He enjoys having the leisure time to wage water balloon wars with the neighborhood kids and bask in the glow of the family's big-screen TV.
—Karen D'Souza, “'Dustin': a comic-strip antihero for our recessionary times,” San Jose Mercury News, March 19, 2010
2004 (earliest)
funemployment—a happy time in one's life when one is not employed and is not wanting to be employed.
—JBMason, “funemployment,” Urban Dictionary, March 17, 2004
Notes
There is also a sketch-comedy group called Funemployment (earliest citation: 2003), as well as a much earlier use (from 1991) of funemployment appears as a heading in volume 300 of Punch.