I cannot understand the differences between the nouns (they both seem to mean "work").
For example: when we hire an employee, we have to define payroll and benefits for them. So which word better describes payroll and benefits, "Employment" or "Job"?
Any help would be appreciated!
I'd say 'terms of employment'. Employment is more to do with the relationship between the worker and their work. Job is more to do with their position or function.
In terms of Lakoff's grounding metaphors, I see 'work' as a 'continuum' word, for an activity that metaphorically extends over time; 'job' as a 'containment' word, as described above.
Employment would be a better choice out of the two.
Out of the colloquial, a job has a slightly different connotation as compared to employment. A job can mean a post of employment (I'm looking for a job vs I am looking for employment) but it can also mean a specific task (It's my job to do this).
Employment on the other hand is more specific - It almost always specifically means occupation with which someone earns their living, or the act of employing someone (which would be useful for your context)
Job and employment seem to be related and they have same synonyms, the word work.
Job is the position in a regular employment while employment is the paid condition of work.
Therefore,there is no difference between the meaning of the two, but maybe if they are used in a sentence there is a difference. Try it yourself to find out.
In the sense in which you are using them there is very little difference between the two except that "job" is less formal and is slightly more likely to be used to refer less secure, lower status, and less career orientated positions. For instance "he had a job as a circuit judge" wouod be perfectly correct but "he was employed as a circuit judge" would be more normal.
However both words have more than one definition.
In addition to being a synonym for employment job can mean the responsibilities someone has as part of their employment (his job is to drive the refuse truck, her job is to perform open-heart surgery); a particular task, whether paid or not (repainting a whole office block is a big job, doing the laundry for a family with six children is a big job) and there are a few less common meanings.
Employment also has more than one meaning, in addition to being a synonym for job it can mean the action of giving paid work to someone (The employment of a gardener gave her more time to write) or the utilisation of something (full employment of the machinery will increase production).
When you are talking specifically about someone working for an organisation or individual and getting money for the work job and employment are very close in meaning, but the other uses of the words diverge considerably.
