musical chairs

English

musical chairs (uncountable)

(games) A children's game in which players circle a group of chairs. There is one chair fewer than the number of players. When someone who is not watching stops playing music, everybody sits down, and the player left without a chair is eliminated.
(figuratively) Any activity which results in repeated, pointless shuffling of people or objects.
- 2022 October 7, Emma Goldberg, “The Job Market Has Been Like Musical Chairs. Will the Music Stop?”, in The New York Times‎:
  The job market last year and earlier in 2022 was like musical chairs, offering record opportunities for hopping from seat to seat. Now many feel that the music is about to stop.

game

Chinese:
Mandarin: 音樂椅
Dutch: stoelendans (nl) m
Finnish: tuolileikki (fi)
French: chaises musicales (fr) f pl
German: Reise nach Jerusalem f
Italian: gioco della sedia m
Polish: gorące krzesła n pl (lit. 'hot chairs')
Portuguese: dança das cadeiras f
Russian: музыка́льные сту́лья m or pl (muzykálʹnyje stúlʹja)
Spanish: juego de las sillas m, sillita musical, sillas musicales, (Argentina) baile de las sillas
Swedish: hela havet stormar (sv)
Thai: เก้าอี้ดนตรี (gâo-îi-don-dtrii)
Turkish: sandalye kapmaca

figuratively: activity of shuffling people