WASHINGTON (AP) — First there was a two-year pay freeze. Now furloughs loom, as federal agencies make personnel costs a prime target for across-the-board budget cuts that went into effect last week. The result: anxiety and low morale in a workforce often envied for its job security.
"It would certainly put a strain on things," said Jonathan Schweizer, 61, an environmental engineer at the Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago who could be forced to take up to 13 days of unpaid leave this year. "I'd probably have to run up some credit-card debt or defer maintenance on my home that I'd otherwise consider important."
Government agencies vary widely in how they are dealing with the "sequester," as the automatic cuts are called, according to labor unions that represent federal workers.
Federal workers could face seven days of furloughs at the Housing and Urban Development Department, while Homeland Security personnel might see twice that number.
More than half of the nation's 2.1 million federal workers could be furloughed over the next six months. The federal government is the country's single largest employer, with its employees making up about 1.2 percent of the nation's workforce.
Comments
Welcome to what the rest of the country has been dealing with for 5 years.
Take some cuts like the steelworkers did. They lost their jobs. What did the government do. Carter came to town expressed some concern , congress came up with some TRA and that was that. I feel for these federal employees but I just can't reach them. Maybe they should take a pay cut and contribute a lot more towards their pensions and health care. They will just have to suck it up and be thankfull they have a JOB !!!