Tens of thousands of Pennsylvania-based federal workers furloughed during the government shutdown may be eligible for unemployment compensation through the state Department of Labor & Industry.
Federal employees not working and not receiving pay during the shutdown can apply for unemployment under state law, but officials said eligibility is determined on a case-by-case basis.
“These benefits are fully federally funded,” said Danielle Woods, press secretary for the Department of Labor & Industry.
Some employees have been instructed to continue reporting for duty, though they are not being paid for time worked after the shutdown began Oct. 1. Because they are still working, Woods said they are not considered unemployed.
For more information or to file a claim, visit www.uc.pa.gov or call (833) 755-0882.
Estimates on the number of federal workers in Pennsylvania vary from just over 100,000, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis analysis of August data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to around 67,000 per the Office of Personnel Management.
Based on that latter figure, Smart Asset estimates more than 43,000 federal employees are furloughed in the commonwealth.
Federal employees who receive unemployment benefits and later receive back pay for the shutdown period may be required to repay the unemployment dollars they received, according to Woods.
A 2019 law requires that all government workers be retroactively paid, but this year might be different. President Donald Trump’s administration is weighing whether back pay must be paid when the government reopens, though House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said Congress will “of course” ensure payments after a deal is reached.
As several national news outlets have reported, Trump’s position is likely a tactic to pressure Senate Democrats into breaking their blockade of the budget — a fight they say they picked to restore subsidies for Obamacare participants.
It’s unclear how long the shutdown will last. The Senate rejected several measures to fund the government this week, and there is no obvious off-ramp for lawmakers to reach a deal.
The longest shutdown in history ran 35 days between December 2018 to January 2019 during Trump’s first term.
The state Department of Labor & Industry did not provide a timeline for when eligible individuals might receive their first unemployment payment.