Shutdown adds more stress on Colorado’s already strained federal workers

The shutdown is the latest stressor for Colorado’s federal workers as the Trump administration works to slash the government workforce.

Government employees have described an atmosphere of chaos, confusion and intimidation since President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term in January. Earlier this year, some workers were let go only to be brought back days or weeks later when it was determined their roles were needed after all.

Now, unemployment claims from Colorado’s federal workers are surging amid the U.S. government shutdown.

Last week, 289 federal employees filed for unemployment, according to data compiled by Colorado’s Department of Labor and Employment based on new claims in its system. That’s the highest weekly total since the state started tracking the numbers in January. It’s a large jump from the previous week, when 18 former federal workers in Colorado filed to receive unemployment benefits.

Stephanie Rogers, a chapter president of the National Treasury Employees Union and a Colorado-based microbiologist with the Food and Drug Administration, filed for unemployment the day after the shutdown started.

“I've got kids … I have to have something to help them, to pay for them, to get them to and from school," said Rogers, who works at the Federal Center in Lakewood. "We don't have a bus system that picks up where we're at. And so yeah, we have to have this."

Federal employees in Colorado who are furloughed during the shutdown are eligible to collect unemployment from the state. The money will have to be paid back once the shutdown ends and government workers receive the backpay they are owed.

David Zalubowski/AP

Deferred resignation counts down

The shutdown might not be the only thing driving the spike in unemployment claims. Roughly 154,000 federal workers across the U.S. took a deferred resignation offer from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, when it was still led by billionaire Elon Musk earlier this year. That program encouraged employees to resign by granting full pay and benefits for eight months.

Those people were technically still employed even though they weren’t working. For many workers, those payments ended on Sept. 30.  People who haven’t found a new job became eligible for unemployment benefits last week.

It’s not possible to determine how many of the new filers are furloughed versus how many have left the government.

Rogers, a federal employee for 16 years, is using lessons learned from the last government shutdown in 2018.

“The one thing I learned is you better be prepared. So I pulled money out of my retirement. So I applied for unemployment almost immediately, because [the 2018 shutdown] was a very, very long shutdown. And it was really scary because even though it was shut down for 35 days, you don't get paid on the 35th day. You still have to wait for your paycheck to be issued … And that's a long time to ask creditors to wait for their bills…  You could potentially get in trouble with your mortgage or your car or whatever the bills you happen to have,” she said.

AP

New wave of uncertainty

Some furloughed workers are holding off on filing for unemployment. Take Glenn, a Denver-based employee with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development who helps develop low-income housing. He asked to be identified by his middle name for fear of retribution.

“We’re in an OK spot now financially, but if this thing drags on and on, which it seems like it might, that just gets to be a worse and worse proposition,” said Glenn, who has a 4-month old child with his wife, who is also a federal employee.

Paying for daycare could eventually be a financial strain, he said. Even though both parents are home during the shutdown, they can’t stop paying for daycare because they will lose their spot.

“It’s our ideal daycare. It’s close by. They have a philosophy we really like and they’re more affordable than another place we did get a spot at but ultimately didn’t go with. Now that we’ve forgone that spot, this is the spot we have,” Glenn said.

For those that made it through those early months, the shutdown is triggering a fresh wave of uncertainty. 

“When the announcement came out that there might be layoffs during this shutdown, of course everyone in the office was immediately like, ‘Does this mean us?’” Glenn said. “We just don't get information. It takes so long for information to filter down and it's already so watered down that it's like, ‘Well, we have learned more from the news than we have from our internal channels.’”

Sticking it out

On Tuesday, President Trump claimed that federal workers might not get backpay, despite legislation enacted in 2019 that mandates retroactive pay for federal employees affected by government shutdowns.

“I'm a single mom of two children. I don't get child support. It's me and my children. And so it's very uncertain. It's terrifying,” said Rogers.

The HUD employee said that despite the turmoil this year, government work is worth it.

“Public service is very important [to my wife] as an individual, to me as an individual and us as a family unit,” Glenn said.  “To me there's kind of no greater honor than serving your country. And the way I serve my country, as a federal civil servant, is connecting people to programs that can help lift them out of poverty. And it's showing up every day and doing unglamorous work to make sure that people who need help can get it.” 

Since  Trump was sworn in for his second term, 1,455 federal employees have filed for unemployment in Colorado. The Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Treasury have taken the biggest hits. 

It’s impossible to say how many people have left government jobs in Colorado this year since federal agencies aren’t releasing detailed information. 

Rogers hopes to be back at work soon. 

“We care. We want to do the job. We want to protect the food supply or the various other positions that my fellow federal employees hold,” Rogers said. “This is not great for the American public either, given that we no longer can do the functions that we were hired to do and our expertise is going to waste … It's not a service to the American people that this type of expertise, this amount of money that they've paid for my training, is not being utilized.”