January jobs report to include furloughed federal workers

Hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal workers might not be working or collecting paychecks as a result of the prolonged government shutdown, but the Department of Labor still plans to count them as employed in the January jobs report.

“Federal government employees who are working, but who will not be paid until funding is available, are included in employment counts,” the DoL said in an explainer on its website. “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.”

That’s because on Jan. 16, President Trump signed into law the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which requires employees furloughed or working without a paycheck to be paid once the shutdown ends. Because the employees will receive back-pay, they’re still considered employed, according to U.S. labor officials.

Initially, the White House was bracing for a potentially negative jobs number in January when the payroll data is released on Feb. 1. Kevin Hassett, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, said the White House would adjust for the furloughed workers to better gauge what the employment situation is, sans shutdown.“When we see the January jobs number, it could be a big negative,” Hassett told reporters at the beginning of January. “But it would be because of the furloughed workers, who are ultimately going to get paid.”

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Despite the 33-day shutdown, a little-known line item in the DoL’s budget is allowing certain employees at agencies like the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis and Census Bureau to continue collecting data for economic measurements, including the Census, consumer price index and payroll data.