make-work

noun

1. work, usually of little importance, created to keep a person from being idle or unemployed.

“busy-work, activity of no value,” 1913 (adj.); 1937 (n.), American English, from the verbal expression to make work (see make (v.) + work (n.)). A big fire devoured a street; “It will make work,” I heard my father say; a ship was lost at sea laden with silk, and leather, and cloth; “It will make work,” said my father; a reservoir broke jail, and swept the heart of the town away. “It will make work,” my mother said; so all human calamities were softened blessings to me; they made “work,” and work made wages, and wages made bread and potatoes, and clothes for me. [“The Radical Review,” Chicago, Sept. 15, 1883] Publicly provided employment that is designed primarily to relieve unemployment and only incidentally to accomplish important tasks. If private employers are hiring few people because of a business slump, the government can “make work” for people to do.