The word 'freshly-employed' is a compound of 'freshly' (from 'fresh') and 'employed' (from 'employ'). 'Fresh' comes from Old English 'fersc', meaning 'new' or 'recent', and 'employ' comes from Old French 'employer', meaning 'to use' or 'to hire'.

'Freshly' and 'employed' were combined in modern English to describe someone who has just started a job. 'Employ' evolved from Old French 'employer', which came from Latin 'implicare', meaning 'to involve'.

Initially, 'freshly' meant 'recently' and 'employed' meant 'hired'. The compound 'freshly-employed' specifically came to mean 'recently hired'.