Employment agency given a fifty per cent cut by us (5)
I believe the answer is:
usage
'employment' is the definition.
(I know that employment can be written as usage)
'per cent cut by us' is the wordplay.
'per' becomes 'a'.
'cent cut' becomes 'ge' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a'+'ge'='age'
'age' put after 'us' is 'USAGE'.
'agency given a fifty' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for usage that I've seen before include "Treatment; tradition" , "Established custom" , "Application" , "Habit" , "Habitual custom" .)