Ironically, the sixteen day government shutdown and government service interruptions had actually helped the job situation in the United States, not hurt it as earlier expected.
Since the job numbers are announced on the first Friday of the month, the shutdown forced the Bureau of Labor Statistics delayed the release by a wek to allow more time for the collation of necessary data on payroll and household data. This resulted in an above average response rate for payroll information submitted.
The Obama administration had released a detailed report on the consequent effects of the partial government shutdown that had occurred last month. In the context of a USD16 trillion economy, there were still costs resulting from the shutdown. These include the total lost work days pegged at 6.6 million. The cost of backpay for the furloughed employees reached USD2 billion while jobs from the private sector lost totalled 120,000.
According to Senator Barbara Mikulski, MD(D), who is also the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee said, "This manufactured crisis damaged the economy, cost us jobs and hurt the middle class companies. The American people deserve a government that works as hard as they do. It's time to hear from middle of roaders, It's time to work together on a bipartisan basis."
The senator referred to the possibility of a second shutdown if Congress again fails to pass a budget or provide financing support for the governmental operations.
The greatest cost would be the USD2 billion worth of back pay to be paid to the government employees put on furlough. Government agencies were required to send non-essential personnel home which resulted in a 40% drop of the civilian federal employees being put on forced leave.
While there are many costs, the lessons learned from this experience would help the US government resolve issues, such as the ongoing budget discussions across the Aisle.
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