WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of furloughed federal employees seeking unemployment benefits jumped in the first two weeks of the shutdown, topping 10,000 during the week of Jan. 5.
The Labor Department said Thursday that is double the number of federal workers who sought aid in the previous week. Typically fewer than a thousand former federal employees apply for jobless benefits each week.
Federal employees who aren’t working during the partial government shutdown are eligible to claim unemployment aid, while those working without pay are not, the Labor Department has said. Yet even those sent home will have to repay the unemployment aid if they receive back pay once the shutdown ends.
The number of Americans overall who sought unemployment benefits last week declined 3,000 to 213,000, the government said. That figure doesn’t include federal beneficiaries, who are tracked in a separate category. Applications by federal workers are reported with a one-week delay.
More furloughed federal workers could apply for unemployment benefits in the weeks ahead. The Labor Department will release data for the week ending Jan. 12, the third week of the shutdown, next week.
The shutdown that began Dec. 22 caused roughly 420,000 federal employees to work without pay. Another 380,000 are not at work and not being paid. Those numbers have shifted a bit in recent days as the IRS and some other agencies have called more employees back to work.
Applications rose last week in states with a large number of federal contractors, many of whom are also working without pay. In Washington D.C., unemployment claims rose to 2,158 from 1,190, while in Virginia they jumped to 5,966 from 3,497 and in Maryland to 4,949 from 4,467.
The overall data suggests the job market remains healthy, with few layoffs. Employers added a strong 312,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate stood at a very low 3.9 percent.
Rest easy, furloughed workers! The good news is that to celebrate all this winning, Fat Nixon will be sponsoring free meals for you every day – all the Flaming Hot Cheetos and orange soda you can eat and drink! Huzzah! God Bless the Republic!
I am a contractor for a large federal agency (SSA). Technically a state employee but funding comes from SSA, and we have been affected by earlier shutdowns. SSA is currently funded, however, so we’re not affected. Not directly anyway, we do have need to work with other fed agencies which are furloughed.
And I feel kind of guilty, like I should also be furloughed. I’m proud of the work we do, and I’m pissed as hell that so many of my fellow gov’t workers are having to go through this. No one is in this for big money, obviously. It’s a job, but it’s one that I feel good about, serving my fellow citizens and not just boosting corporate profits. And for the GOP to shit all over these workers, using them as pawns for the ego of a certifiable madman just enfuriates me.
They’ll bend over backwards to further enrich the already obscenely rich, but will piss on the folks that are actually making this country work, for really a pittance, despite the obstacles and insults put forth by the likes of Trump and Scott Walker and all the other grifters.
I guess it is as it ever was…
Gee, whoda thunk that forced laborers would attempt to collect unemployment compensation? I mean, don’t they have blood they can sell and children that would fetch a decent price from Hillary’s Ping-Pong Pizza Basement Teenage White Slavery Ring?
And since the FDA can no longer do food inspections during the Trump/McConnell/GOP shutdown, have fun with that projectile diarrhea, folks!
Are there no orphanages? Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons?