Furloughed workers will still be counted as 'employed' in January jobs report

Source: Politico

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Furloughed workers will still be counted as 'employed' in January jobs report
By IAN KULLGREN 01/22/2019 02:12 PM EST

Despite not working or getting paid for the past month, federal employees furloughed by the government won’t be counted as unemployed in the January jobs report next week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Federal government employees who are working, but who will not be paid until funding is available, are included in employment counts,” BLS wrote in a fact sheet on its website. (1) “Furloughed federal employees who were not working during the reference period, but who will be paid once funding is available, are also included in employment counts.“

Beyond that, the government says it will count federal contractors who don’t receive back pay as unemployed. There are no concrete numbers on how many contracted workers have been furloughed, but it’s expected to run in the tens of thousands. Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) introduced legislation last week to give contractors some back pay, but it‘s unclear whether it will pass.
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(1) https://www.bls.gov/bls/does-the-lapse-of-appropriation-for-some-federal-agencies-impact-bls-data-or-release-dates.htm

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/22/federal-workers-report-government-shutdown-1119741

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