Employment is an agreement between an employer and an employee that the employee will provide certain services on the job, and in the employer's designated workplace, to facilitate the accomplishment of the employer organization’s goals and mission, in return for compensation. The agreement can be verbal, implied, or an official employment contract.
An employee may be defined as: "A person in the service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and direct the employee in the material details of how the work is to be performed."
In employment, the employer determines the where, when, how, why, and what of the work that is performed by the employee. The degree of input, autonomy and self-directedness that an employee experiences on the job is a by-product of an employer’s philosophy of management and employment.
In the United States, much of an employment relationship between an employer and employee is governed by the needs, profitability, and management philosophy of an employer as well as the availability of employees. Increasingly, however, Federal and state laws are enacted which direct the employment relationship and decrease the autonomy of employers.
Employment ends at the prerogative of the employer or the employee.

Employment law is the body of laws, administrative rulings, and precedents which address the legal rights of, and restrictions on, working people and their organizations. As such, it mediates many aspects of the relationship between trade unions, employers and employees. In Canada, employment laws related to unionized workplaces are differentiated from those relating to particular individuals. In most countries however, no such distinction is made.