Déjà vu
It’s the story that never truly goes away: a shutdown of the US government is once again looking likely, with budget negotiations in Congress dragging on. If the House fails to reach an agreement on funding legislation by the October 1st deadline, hundreds of thousands of federal employees will find themselves furloughed without pay, and all non-essential federal agencies will likely grind to a halt.
Any shutdown could directly impact the nearly 3 million people who rely on the federal government for their payslips, with everyone from White House staffers to airport security personnel, tax collectors to National Park rangers, potentially affected. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the government is the nation's largest employer, accounting for over 22 million employees (excluding non-civilian military personnel). For perspective, the next largest employer, Walmart, employs roughly one-tenth that number.
However, the vast majority of the public sector workforce is employed at the local and state levels, collectively shouldering the responsibilities of crucial functions such as education, law enforcement, infrastructure projects and firefighting. In the event of a shutdown, state and local governments will be forced to tap into their own coffers to cover grants and expenses — but these budgets have their own limits, and their capacity to bridge the gap is not inexhaustible.
