New Jersey Workers Pine For Paychecks Amid Government Shutdown

As many as 20,000 federal workers in New Jersey may be waiting with tied hands for much-needed paychecks as the U.S. government shutdown drags on for a third week, recently released statistics show.

Altogether, 20,625 Garden State residents are employed with the U.S. government and may be either working without pay or furloughed due to the ongoing shutdown, according to the most recent numbers available from the federal Office of Personnel Management.

The shutdown was born from a bitter Democrat/Republican budget battle that escalated over the holiday season. President Donald Trump is sticking with his demand for money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and Democrats, who took control of the U.S. House of Representatives on Jan. 3, are refusing to give him what he wants.

• See related article: GOP, Democrats Trade Blame For Shutdown, No Deal In Sight
• See related article: House Democrats Unveil Plan To Fund Government, But Not A Wall

Don’t work at a federal government job or know someone who does? The shutdown may still put the crunch on you and your neighbors in several ways, including IRS refunds, SNAP and WIC benefits, school/daycare food programs and immigration courts.

• See related article: 5 Ways Government Shutdown Could Hurt New Jersey

Currently, nine of the 15 cabinet-level departments (Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, State, Transportation and Treasury) are at least partially shut down.

In New Jersey, there are thousands of workers employed with federal agencies, including:

• Dept. of Agriculture – 435
• Dept. of Commerce – 397
• Dept. of Homeland Security – 959
• Dept. of HUD – 76
• Dept. of Interior – 409
• Dept. of Justice – 742
• Dept. of State – 14
• Dept. of Transportation – 1,728
• Dept. of Treasury – 402

Thousands of other affected federal employees in New Jersey also work for dozens of smaller independent agencies that are also shuttered or at least partly shuttered because of the budget dispute, such as NASA, the FEC, the Peace Corps and the National Labor Relations Board.

But how many of these people are working without pay? For now, there's no easy answer to that question.

The Senate Appropriations Committee released some national estimates, concluding that about 420,000 federal employees will be working without pay while around 380,000 are being or have been furloughed. As for who those people are and where they are located, there is no detailed accounting of them.

The Appropriations Committee says that this much is known:

• The Commerce Department is furloughing 86 percent – around 41,000 – employees;
• NASA is sending around 96 percent – about 16,700 employees – home for the duration;
• At least 80 percent of the employees of the United States Forest Service – about 28,800 staff – are on furlough;
• About 52,000 employees of the Internal Revenue Service are not at work; and
• About 95 percent of employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development – about 7,100 workers – are not in the office.

There is no way to translate that into state-specific breakdowns. Agencies are allowed to determine on their own which employees are essential, which ones should go home, and are not required to publicize those numbers.

• See related article: NJ Congresswoman Refuses Pay Until Government Shutdown Ends

With previous reporting by Colin Miner, Patch Staff

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