Wicked leaders of industry love lay-offs (3)
I believe the answer is:
ill
'wicked' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'leaders of industry love lay-offs' is the wordplay.
'leaders of' indicates taking the first letters.
'lay-offs' becomes 'l' (this could be a standard abbreviation which I don't know about).
The initial letters of 'industry love' is 'il'.
'il'+'l'='ILL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ill that I've seen before include "Wicked" , "Where to find Chicago" , "Badly - in need of medical care" , "Dicky" , "Ailing" .)