He'd be out of work, as desired (5)
I believe the answer is:
hoped
'desired' is the definition.
(hoping is a kind of desiring)
'he'd be out of work' is the wordplay.
'be out of' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'work' becomes 'op' (abbreviation for opus).
'hed' going around 'op' is 'HOPED'.
'as' is the link.
(Other definitions for hoped that I've seen before include "Desired, trusted" , "Desired, with optimism" , "Desired with the expectation of success" , "Aspired" , "Expected and wished" .)