Prolonged Shutdown Leaves Federal Workers Struggling with Missed Paychecks and Uncertainty

As the government shutdown drags into its third week with no end in sight, furloughed federal workers are grappling with missed paychecks and in some cases, soul-searching about whether to continue working for the government.

The outlook for ending the shutdown got a little bleaker this week after the White House said it would continue to pay active-duty military service members during the shutdown, removing a major political pressure point that could have led to a compromise.

“Without this urgency, the shutdown is likely to continue into November,” Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC, wrote in a commentary.

The government shutdown that began Oct. 1. If it doesn’t end soon, it could easily become the longest in history, breaking the 35-day record set in 2018 and 2019. During a shutdown, many civilian federal workers are either furloughed or working without pay, key government services are disrupted, and crucial economic data goes unreported.

The shutdown is especially painful for the pocketbooks of federal workers, who are mostly going unpaid at least through the shutdown. An estimated 750,000 people are furloughed and not being paid, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Additionally, 690,000 are working without pay, according to a report released by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, on Tuesday.

Up to 1.8 million paychecks will be missed if the shutdown continues through the end of the month, the BPC estimated. Furloughed workers alone will miss out on the equivalent of $400 million per day, the CBO said.

The shutdown is more stressful than past legislative standoffs for affected workers because President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold back pay for furloughed workers and has also begun laying off some of them permanently, both of which are unprecedented moves.

“It’s a bit harrowing,” said Jon McCormack, a deputy division chief at the Federal Communications Commission, a resident of Alexandria, Virginia. “It’s real people’s lives. I do fear for and feel for my friends and people that I know.”

At the heart of the shutdown is a dispute over the federal budget. Democratic lawmakers are demanding Republicans make concessions on health care policy, including extending health care subsidies that would prevent insurance premiums for millions from soaring starting next year. Republicans have said they won’t negotiate until the Democrats vote to reopen the government. Experts see little chance of a compromise any time soon.

 “A record 35-day shutdown certainly doesn’t look implausible anymore,” Jim Reid, head of macro and thematic research at Deutsche Bank, wrote in a commentary. “The rhetoric doesn’t sound at all like either side is preparing for a deal.”

Greener Pastures

Some federal workers have responded by looking for other jobs, according to data from job-hunting site Indeed. Job applications by federal workers rose the week of Oct. 9, and were 157% above their levels on Jan. 1.

McCormack, who works on rural broadband projects, said he isn’t one of them and decided to stay working for the government even after some of his colleagues changed jobs. At least so far.

“When the government is shut down and you can’t do the work, and you may not get a paycheck, it does cause you to have a little bit of anxiety about whether that was the right call, or whether you should be looking for greener pastures,” he said.

McCormack said he and many other federal workers stay on the job despite the volatility because they believe they are doing valuable work on behalf of the public.

“They’ve been people who could clearly make a ton more money in the private sector, and some of them have left to go make a lot more money in the private sector, but they did it because they’re really dedicated to the mission,” he said.