employ vs give the axe

employ

noun
  • The state of being an employee; employment. 

verb
  • To hire (somebody for work or a job). 

  • To use (somebody for a job, or something for a task). 

  • To make busy. 

give the axe

verb
  • To fire (dismiss from employment) 

How often have the words employ and give the axe occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )