Shutdown: 91% of IRS Workers Have Been Furloughed and Considered ‘Non-Essential,’ Is the Government Shutdown Really So Bad?

For all the drama surrounding today’s political drama (which came and went largely unnoticed by a stock market hypnotized by the Federal Reserve), the bottom line is that the key impact of the government shutdown has been nothing more than the temporary unpaid leave of absence, i.e. furloughs (with all accrued, owed payments promptly being remitted once the government is unhalted) of some 815,932 civilian government workers, out of a total of 2 million, or a 41% furlough rate.

WSJ: ‘some agencies, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are seeing all but a handful of their employees go home without pay. Others, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security, kept the vast majority of their workers on the job. Certain divisions of government, such as the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Reserve, don’t operate under the normal appropriations process and their staffing remained unaffected.”

So, with 91% of the IRS’ total 94,516 workers considered ‘non-essential,’ is the government shutdown really so bad?

WSJ reported: More than 800,000 of the U.S. government’s civilian workers faced furloughs after the government shut down Tuesday. Some agencies, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are seeing all but a handful of their employees go home without pay. Others, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security, kept the vast majority of their workers on the job. Certain divisions of government, such as the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Reserve, don’t operate under the normal appropriations process and their staffing remained unaffected.

Here is an estimate of the number of workers furloughed across most of the government: