funemployed

The funemployed seem mostly to be twenty- or thirty-somethings who have not yet settled into marital or parental responsibilities.

Buoyed by severance, savings, unemployment checks or their parents, the funemployed do not spend their days poring over job listings.

In the United States, which triggered last year's global financial near-meltdown, the travel trade is pinning its hopes on the "funemployed" to keep the industry afloat.

On this subject, The Los Angeles Times reported with foresight: "For the 'funemployed,' unemployment is welcome."

"The funemployed serve as a target for extended trips, world cruises and long haul airline tickets, and a means to boost off-season occupancy rates," added trend spotter Euromonitor International.

Sarah Hadland, fresh from Miranda, played Trish, a neurotic manager whose perma-grin did little to disguise her despair in the face of a remit to "turn the unemployed into the "funemployed" ."

Ms Bremner also believes that Britain is set to follow America where the travel industry is now catering to the "funemployed" – people who, having lost their jobs, are spending their redundancy pay on the holiday of a lifetime.

The then-26-year-old described herself as a "funemployed" heiress to her father's four billion retail real estate fortune, as he founded the Golden Eagle International Group in Nanjing and turned his assets into the country's largest mall chains, having stores in 15 cities.