If I ran financial or security services, I'd be snatching away IRS and Secret Service agents.

Federal employees cannot take secondary employment without administrative permission, which cannot be obtained during a shutdown.

It's the reason my wife isn't temping right now.

even though not getting paid. So if they don't show up (e.g., to work a second job), they will have no TSA job to come back to. 2. Others (including those furloughed) are often not allowed to work elsewhere without prior approval. That includes a lot of the professionals at CDC, NIH, EPA, FDA, and elsewhere. 3. How many employers want to hire--not to fill their own needs in terms of coverage and schedule, but rather to help someone they assume will only be there for a short period of time. Do you really think a lot of employers want/can afford to do THAT? 4. Many who work paycheck to paycheck my not be able to invest what it takes to pick up another job--whether that means gas to travel, $$ for appropriate clothing or uniforms, or daycare for their children, given they have no paycheck from their primary jobs.

This is not a simple "just go out and pick up some part time work to tide you over" kind of situation. Frankly, I'm appalled that so many think it is...

Thank you.

they're holding out, hoping this shutdown is over with sooner than later.

That might well change after another month or so.

...people are considering themselves "employed" because they drive a car for Uber, deliver packages for Amazon, or do some other type of "gig" job. I highly doubt there is an abundance of career type jobs going unfilled.

who is essentially a temp for a full time job.

They're still supposed to be working, even if their pay is delayed. So when would they be job hunting and interviewing etc?

And even if they were able to find something in their wheelhouse that's roughly equivalent salary-wise this quickly, chances are that the benes wouldn't be as good. Not to mention the loss of seniority. And then there's the notorious civil service job security (which sounds kind of foolish under present circumstances, but historically it's pretty hard to get fired from a civil service gig).

I recall that many California employees quit State employee out of frustration due to almost annual government shutdowns back when California required a supermajority to pass a budget. So, Republicans in the minority would just shutdown the government if they did not get there way. Eventually, California voters got rid of the supermajority requirement, and Republicans have been in the decline in California ever since. Still, a fair amount of California State employees got so demoralized that they left and never came back.

Here, Trump has been cancelling raises and his administration has almost been gleeful at the prospect of sticking it to employees to make them work without paying them. Why put up with it?

Many of them have.