Federal employees placed on unpaid leave due to the US federal government funding freeze are 31% more likely to voluntarily leave their jobs in the next fiscal year, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing a joint study by researchers from Emory University (Georgia), Stanford University (California) and the University of Virginia.
“It makes them feel like pawns in a political game“, said one of the study's authors. Financial instability due to lack of salaries further exacerbates the situation. After analyzing data from 2010 to 2017, experts concluded that federal employees are 31 percent more likely to voluntarily resign if they are forced to leave due to a government shutdown.
According to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), unpaid leave due to the federal government shutdown will affect 750,000 people. In addition, about 100,000 people left their jobs last week after receiving payments under the Deferred Action Program. As a result, the next “US Labor Department unemployment report could be catastrophic”, said Ryan Sweet, chief US specialist at Oxford Economics, a UK-based consultancy.