‘No Idea How Long People Can Hold Out’: Federal Workers Feel Brunt of Shutdown NYT | Top Stories By: Eileen Sullivan and Drew Atkins 27 October 2025 at 00:59 As more than one million government employees go without pay, many are turning to side jobs and food banks to make ends meet. © Taylor Glascock for The New York TimesJill Hornick, an employee of the Social Security Administration, has joined 730,000 federal employees working without pay because of the government shutdown.