Summary
Prepared by Marc Labonte and Bisola Momoh
For more information, see CRS Report R43292, The FY2014 Government Shutdown: Economic Effects, by Marc Labonte.
Sources:
Federal Employees out of work in October 2013 - Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/bls/shutdown_2013_empsit_qa.pdf
Measured Effects of Government Shutdown on GDP Growth - Bureau of Economic Analysis,
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/2014/pdf/tech4q13_adv.pdf
Comparing GDP and Federal Spending Growth in the Fourth Quarter of 2013 to other quarters -Bureau of Economic Analysis
Federal Government
Output declined
6.6% in 2013:Q4,
but it also fell sharply
in the four previous
quarters, when there
was no shutdown
Nevertheless,
GDP growth
overall grew
unusually rapidly
in 2013:Q4
COMPARING GDP AND FEDERAL SPENDING GROWTH IN THE FOURTH QUARTER
OF 2013 TO OTHER QUARTERS.
-10
-8
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
2012 2013 2014 2015
% CHANGE GDP FEDERAL GOVT OUTPUT
MEASURED EFFECTS OF GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ON GDP GROWTH.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that lost hours worked
by federal employees reduced GDP growth by 0.3% in the fourth
quarter of 2013. BEA did not attempt to measure any other effects
of the shutdown on GDP, so this estimate can be thought of as a
lower bound of the shutdown's effect on GDP. 0.3%
FEDERAL EMPLOYEES OUT OF WORK IN OCTOBER 2013
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 440,000 federal workers who reported their status as unemployed
on temporary layoff or not at work (not including those who were not at work because they were sick, on
vacation, etc). Most of those workers' employment status can be attributed to the shutdown—by comparison,
15,000 federal workers were in those categories in October 2012.
OCT
2012
OCT
2013
Thousands of Federal Workers
temp
layoff
not at work
(other)
0 100 200 300 400 500
ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE
FY2014 SHUTDOWN
The federal government experienced a funding gap beginning on October 1, 2013, which ended when the
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014 (P.L. 113-46) was signed into law on October 17, 2013. This funding
gap resulted in a "government shutdown" and the furlough of federal employees who were not excepted.
This infographic reviews the official data available on the shutdown's effect on the economy.