Furloughed federal workers face delays getting unemployment pay during shutdown

Source: AP

Updated 7:24 PM EST, November 1, 2025


For more than two weeks now during the government shutdown, Imelda Avila-Thomas has been trying in vain to get approved for unemployment compensation to help cover essentials such as food and mortgage payments for her family while she’s on unpaid furlough from her federal government job.

She kept asking questions and was ultimately sent a hyperlink to upload proof-of-income documents, which she did earlier this week. But Avila-Thomas, who works for the Department of Labor in San Antonio, said the system still deems her ineligible for benefits, saying it cannot verify her wages. She wonders whether someone who might help her has also been furloughed.

A mother of a 12-year-old daughter and local union leader, Avila-Thomas is among the thousands of furloughed federal workers trying to navigate the unemployment system — a sharp increase, but still a fraction of the 670,000-plus furloughed workforce, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. The dollar amounts and length of benefits vary by state.

About 26,000 federal workers filed initial claims from Sept. 28 through Oct. 18, according to raw data published by the Department of Labor. Some 3,300 applied in the week that ended days before the Oct. 1 shutdown start.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/furlough-federal-workers-unemployment-government-shutdown-e0c73357aab61c7a6162cfb26c659c03