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[Sajuek]

In every game I end up playing, by year 3 I have around 90 dwarves.

2 miners are mining the lower levels for ore.
2 dwarves are churning out as many limestone piccolos as they can.
1 dwarf is chopping down trees and training the occasional animal that wanders into my trap.
1 wood burner is burning wood.
1-2 smelters smelting down gold and iron gear I bought off trainers (As I never get any of the iron ores. Ever.)
1 dwarf is making golden piccolos and, where possible, silver hammers & iron axes/armour.
1 Dwarf is brewing.
1 cook is cooking.
3 dwarves are growing & brewing intermittently.
1 Dwarf is swapping between masonry/carpentry/mechanics as needed.
1 Dwarf is engraving and smoothing all my walls.
1 Dwarf is playing doctor for the odd Wolverine bite.
10 Military dwarves are refusing to train as I don't understand the military interface beyond freeing stripped goblin thieves from their cages in locked rooms of eager dwarves with wooden traning weapons.
3 Dwarves hold admin/helpful noble roles.
Another 10 dwarves are children, who seem to be the only ones who get Fey moods for legendary metalworking.
Another 15 tops could be argued as useful for the purpose of hauling furniture/dead insects/stripping prisoners.

The other 40?

Hanging around in my Legendary dining room. Drinking my ale. Eating my luxury @plump helmet roast@'s and generally not doing anything of use while tempting me to take out the staircase, lock the doors and turn off the pump which is draining waterfall.

They haven't got many useful skills (How many great fish disectors can I use in a map with no fish?) What should I do with them?

What do you do with them?

[Loud Whispers]

Rock pots, soldiers and farmers. If you don't set your migrant jobs from the moment they arrive,

well I feel sorry for you.

[Di]

Most of the numbers could be doubled. Though if you'd rather not do that draft them into a military and send into a glorious battle against superior numbers of goblins.

[Madventurer]

Throw them into a closed chamber with farms and stuff, make them do furniture until they are masterwork, then use airlocks to give them to 'better' folk. If tantrum spiral happens, nothing is lost.
Hopefully, your working ones aren't friends with them, but if they have been kept busy, they shouldn't.

[acetech09]

Masons... tons of masons. build something.

[K17U]

You could branch out in other industries. Clothes making for instance.

[Loud Whispers]

Most of the numbers could be doubled. Though if you'd rather not do that draft them into a military and send into a glorious battle against superior numbers of goblins.

If the goblins outnumber you, you're doing it wrong.

Hang on, what?

[Girlinhat]

I prefer to set up a proper militia.  Grab them up into 10 unit squads, give them leather armor, iron helm, copper spear, and whatever goblinite they pick up.  Give each squad a barracks of no important value.  When a siege arrives, these units are placed on the front line.  Whoever dies get replaced by another useless migrant.

[Loud Whispers]

I prefer to set up a proper military, every migrant gets put into squads of three, armed with whatever I can give them and spar all year or are busy making booze. It's a simple Dwarf life :p

[Calech]

Well, you'll need to have at least some dwarves on standby as haulers anyway, to prevent your Legendary Farmer/Brewer/Metalsmith/<insert other useful profession> having to drop what they're doing to move goods to/from the depot, or stacks of xpig tail fibre sockx dropped by the latest wave of invaders, etc.

If you're looking for things to keep them busy here are a few suggestions;

- Set the Workshop Profile of your 'real' Forges to minimum Legendary (or some high level if your metalworkers aren't that high yet) and set up a few extra forges to produce copper bolts, with maximum skill level Novice. Then assign all your Peasants Weaponsmithing. Result: if they have a mood, their highest moodable skill is now Weaponsmithing - so if it's not a possession, you now have a Legendary Weaponsmith for free. (Obviously this only works if they had no prior moodable skills, hence Peasants)

- Branch out into other industries. A working textile industry can account for 10-12 dwarves or more depending on scale (Planters for the crops, Threshers for the thread, Weavers for the cloth, Millers for the dye, Clothesmakers for the final products - I usually double up on these).

- Start experimenting with the military. If you've got that many spare dwarves, one or two lost to a mistake won't be that costly - just make sure they aren't popular...

- Pump gyms are a good way to feed into the military - whilst the stat gains aren't as noticable as through actual military training, when you need to draft replacements, it's easier to identify the less productive members of society from their profession as 'Pump Operator' when all your real pumps are automated.

- Excess stone? Set up about 5-10 masons workshops and set them to make blocks on repeat, and enable masonry on a bunch of idlers - now you have more compact building materials for when they're needed, and have a larger number of skilled masonry workers for any building projects, such as for instance walling off that cavern from the megabeast down there.

Experiment a little - there's many things you can use your dwarves for, and some of them don't even involve them being killed! Have a look through the profession lists and pick something to work on - maybe you'll discover something new and fun for them to do.

[Flying Dice]

You see 40 useless dwarves and a map. I see 40 dabbling masons and a megaproject waiting to happen.

[i2amroy]

Set two or three dwarves to either "make stone mugs" or "make rock blocks" on repeat and turn off all of their hauling labors. Then make a "useless stone" stockpile right next to the workshops with these tasks. After a season or so hauling all of the created items and the stone to support the workshops will use up most of the lazy 40's time, as well as turning all of that useless excess stone into something useful.

[Rodge]

Is there a large body of water near by?

Fishing is a good way to keep them busy. You end up with a massive food stockpile that can be cooked into meals constantly without running out. Even Lavish meals.

Build some new workshops. Never stop churning out goods. Claypots and barrels are the standard, but I like statues. I have a dinin roomg all completely surrounded in several small statue gardens except a few blank spots, and each hospital bed has one right by it. Also you can make picks, add to your mining force, and dig deeper. Never stop digging, there's FUN down there. Also, coffins. Something FUN is bound to happen if you're doing it right.

The military. Always useful. You could train and use them for defense, obviously, or just send them unarmed against random animals and watch the FUN.

[Mushroo]

Dwarf Fortress doesn't keep score. There is no "win state;" only what is satisfying to your individual play style. Some players might view 40 idle dwarfs as an accomplishment.

Personally I love having lots of idlers. Levers get pulled immediately, butchered meat goes to the stockpile before it rots, wounded soldiers get rescued, goods are neatly organized in stockpiles, etc.

[Malkenon]

im in my third year with about 115 dwarves... i WISH i had some idle dwarves lol then i owuld be able to smooth out some more. every one of my dwarves is always running around like a maniac and when they take their breaks to eat or whatever everything gets backed up   i feel like my fortress is way too small though....