{"id":170802,"date":"2025-11-09T03:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T03:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/170802\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T03:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T03:35:10","slug":"shutdown-strain-us-economy-reels-under-layoffs-and-lost-pay-food-banks-small-firms-struggle-to-cope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/170802\/","title":{"rendered":"Shutdown strain: US economy reels under layoffs and lost pay; food banks, small firms struggle to cope"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Shutdown Washington\u2019s economy is facing deepening distress as the longest-ever US government shutdown, mass layoffs of federal workers, and cuts to food assistance converge to hit households and small businesses across the capital region, AP reported.The Capital Area Food Bank, which supports more than 400 pantries and aid organisations across the District of Columbia, northern Virginia, and two Maryland counties, is preparing to provide 8 million more meals than planned this year \u2014 a nearly 20% increase.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis city has been hit especially hard because of the sequence of events that has occurred over the course of this year,\u201d said Radha Muthiah, CEO and president of the food bank.The nation\u2019s capital, home to roughly 150,000 federal employees, has been reeling from layoffs, the shutdown, and heightened law enforcement deployment. With the shutdown halting pay for hundreds of thousands of workers and freezing federal food aid, the economic strain has intensified.The District\u2019s unemployment rate stood at 6% in September, one of the highest in the nation, compared with the US average of 4.3%. Economists warn that the regional impact of the shutdown will persist well after federal operations resume.Political reverberations are also being felt: Democrat Abigail Spanberger\u2019s win in Virginia\u2019s governor\u2019s race was fuelled in part by her focus on the economic fallout of President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s policies on the region.Local businesses see sales fall, jobs vanishWashington\u2019s restaurants, bars, and small retailers \u2014 heavily reliant on federal employees\u2019 spending \u2014 have reported steep drops in sales. The Restaurant Association of Greater Washington said many eateries already operating on thin margins are now struggling to stay afloat as federal staff skip commutes and dining out.\u201cGoing without paychecks is causing cash flow issues for federal workers, and that\u2019s spilling over into small businesses,\u201d said Tracy Hadden Loh, a fellow at Brookings Metro, quoted AP. \u201cA lot of businesses rely on higher spending in Q4 to stay profitable for the year.\u201dAt The Queen Vic, a British pub in northeast Washington, co-owner Ryan Gordon said weekend crowds have halved. \u201cWe still had seats for people, which means the bars around us who get our overflow got nothing,\u201d he said, estimating business is down 50% since the shutdown began.Families under pressure as aid stallsThe financial strain is also pushing middle-income families into crisis. Thea Price, a former employee of the US Institute of Peace, lost her job in March, followed by her husband\u2019s job loss as a government contractor.After relying on SNAP food assistance and savings, the couple\u2019s payments were halted by the shutdown. With limited options left, Price is leaving Washington for her hometown near Seattle.\u201cWe can\u2019t afford to stay in the area any longer and hope something might pan out,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re just in a much different place than when these things started.\u201dAt the Capital Area Food Bank, forklifts are running overtime to meet growing demand. \u201cWe\u2019re focused on getting food to those who need it,\u201d Muthiah said. \u201cBut people are borrowing against their futures to pay for basic necessities today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington\u2019s economy is facing deepening distress as the longest-ever US government shutdown, mass layoffs of federal workers, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,356,97610,179,18,97609,19,17,97611,40731,62963],"class_list":{"0":"post-170802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-economic-impact-of-shutdown","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-food-banks","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-layoffs-of-federal-workers","17":"tag-us-economy","18":"tag-us-government-shutdown"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115517648297298962","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}