It’s a new word, meaning “In a state or manner similar to being employed, but not actually being employed”.
I think it describes my prospects when I get back to the UK, as I have a company that has offered and planned for me to do work on an ad-hoc basis, billed hourly, with discussions of retainers, part-time, and/or full-time (but nothing is definite).
Given the current state of the economy, I think we need a word like this.
If you’d like to start using it, please do, as I’m hoping it makes the American Dialect Society’s Word of the Year list. And if you like it enough, forward this post to your friends. Please – my blog needs the traffic.
N.B. You may write it employedesque or employed-esque.
P.S. N.B. After a quick google, the results show that while self-employed-esque is indexed (but just twice) there is no existence of the word employedesque standing alone.
Nice to know all that money on your education did not entirely go to waste! Your mother.