FILE - In this Wednesday, July 31, 2013, file photo, Americorps volunteer John Harris III, who is helping to coordinate a jobs fair program, fills out some documents for job seekers in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
(CNSNews.com) – The partial shutdown of the federal government at midnight Monday meant that some 800,000 of the approximately 2.8 million federal workers were furloughed, or 28 percent of the workforce will be away from their job without pay until government funding is restored.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of August 2013, the seasonally adjusted percentage of black teens ages 16 to 19 who do not have a job is 38.2 percent, or 282,000 young African Americans.
According to the Office of Personnel Management, the number of federal workers in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the federal government totaled 2.8 million in 2011.
The website notes that “Data comes from agency 113 monthly submissions and covers total end-of-year civilian employment of full-time permanent, temporary, part-time, and intermittent employees. Executive branch includes the Postal Service, and, beginning in 1970, includes various disadvantaged youth and worker-trainee programs.”
That 2.8 million figure does not include the number of uniformed military members, which that same year totaled 1.6 million, according to data from the Department of Defense.
According to law, the military is not furloughed but normally work without pay until government funding is restored. However, the Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed on Monday a law that provides pay to military members during the shutdown.
According to the Department of Labor, furloughed federal employees may be eligible for unemployment benefits – depending on how long they go without pay – through the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) program, which operates under the same terms and conditions as regular state unemployment compensation.