The federal workers being affected by Donald Trump’s government shutdown don’t just live in the Washington, D.C., area—and the economic impact of those missing paychecks goes beyond just federal workers. While Washington has the highest concentration of federal workers in the country, at more than 12,000 per 100,000 residents, Alaska and Montana have 1,699 and 1,500 federal employees per 100,000 people, and Wyoming, South Dakota, and New Mexico also have significant federal employment.
In Ogden, Utah, a city of 87,000 with more than 4,000 federal workers, downtown is noticeably empty and the city expects lowered sales tax revenue, which accounts for a third of annual revenue. The city’s director of community and economic development says that “The lunches that are missed and the shopping that is missed, people are staying at home, and that really hurts our small-business community.”
One furloughed IRS employee is considering becoming a plasma donor to supplement her partner’s income during the shutdown. A food pantry has opened to furloughed workers, and a case manager there says that what she sees is “Fear. It’s just plain, flat-out fear.” One longtime IRS employee described going to the food pantry as “kind of embarrassing,” but with no paycheck and a disabled adult son to support, “I have to.”
“I’m really angry at the president,” she said. “How can he do this to his own people?”
Welcome to Donald Trump’s America.