Air Traffic Controllers Start Resigning as Shutdown Bites
www.thedailybeast.com
Unpaid air traffic controllers are quitting their jobs altogether as the longest government shutdown in U.S. history continues.

Overtaxed and unpaid air traffic controllers are resigning “every day” due to stress from the government shutdown.

“Controllers are resigning every day now because of the prolonged nature of the shutdown,” Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told CNN.

“We hadn’t seen that before. And we’re also 400 controllers short—shorter than we were in the 2019 shutdown.”

Air traffic controllers are federal workers, which means they are part of the approximately 730,000 federal employees working without pay since the shutdown began on Oct. 1.

  • stringere@sh.itjust.works
    52·
    18 hours ago

    I hope we can all agree that people should not be furloughed or working without pay during this shutdown but something I haven’t seen reported on is the effect this will have on economies locally and nationally.

    Napkin math so someone correct me if needed:

    • 4.5 million furloughed or working without pay.
    • Average salary I found was $68,000 but let’s use 50,000 to account for the top paying jobs probably still getting paid.
    • That gives us $4,166 monthly.
    • For each month of shutdown that comes to $18,747,000,000 that isn’t being spent

    While I’m sure most of us Americans could do with less consumption, I can’t help but wonder how many small businesses are going to suffer from this. This is especially true for areas with large amounts of federal employment.

    • Lyrl@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      10·
      7 hours ago

      Small businesses were already disproportionately suffering from the capricious tariff situation. And areas with large federal employment specifically were already suffering from the Doge chainsaw layoffs. This administration is just piling it on.

    • BanMe@lemmy.world
      20·
      17 hours ago

      There are actually projections for the economic downturn to come that do and don’t factor in the government shutdown reaching thanksgiving, then Christmas. So it is being considered in terms of consumer spending as a whole, but you mentioned small businesses specifically, and they are the ones that will be hurt more than anyone in what’s to come. Although, I’m seeing more and more local-only-economies pop up, where you all try to keep money within the network of the community.

      The projections I saw were for the economy to level off by 1Q 2026, but if the shutdown reaches Christmas, it’ll actually shrink an entire point.