'recently-employed' is a compound of 'recently' and 'employed'. 'recently' derives from the adjective 'recent' (from Latin 'recens') with the adverbial suffix '-ly'. 'employed' is the past participle of 'employ' (from Old French 'employer').

'recent' originates from Latin 'recens' > Old French 'recent' > Middle English 'recent', which formed the adverb 'recently' with the suffix '-ly'. 'employ' changed from Old French 'employer' into Middle English 'employ' and produced the past participle 'employed'. The compound phrase 'recently employed' developed by combining the adverb + past participle; the hyphenated form 'recently-employed' is a modern orthographic choice when used attributively.

Individually, 'recently' originally meant 'of recent time' (from 'fresh' or 'new'), and 'employ' meant 'to use or put to work'; together they evolved to the current adjectival meaning 'hired not long ago'.