The economic touch on of the government shutdown is striking an unknown number of workers for federal contractors, such equally Transylvania Vocational Services in Brevard, N.C. TVS recently told workers like Jerone McKinney that it could simply pay them through the centre of February because of the shutdown. (Charles Mostoller for The Washington Post)

The 160 workers at Transylvania Vocational Services were still filling orders this week. But the company is running on reserves, and jobs are at risk. The biggest customer – the federal government – has stopped paying its bills.

TVS is a federal contractor in western Northward Carolina that supplies products such as dry out milk and baking mix to food banks effectually the country and to relief efforts in Africa. A few days ago, CEO Jamie Brandenburg met with employees, many of whom are disabled, to say the visitor's reserves could support their work through the heart of February, while he searches for commercial business not vulnerable to a authorities shutdown.

The partial federal shutdown, at present in a record fourth week, means missed paychecks for more than 800,000 government workers. But information technology besides threatens an untold legion of workers in individual companies that do business with affected agencies.

[The shutdown threatens the promise of regime jobs – and a way of life]

"Most of what'south getting a lot of attention from the public is the federal employees," Brandenburg said, "and I'grand very sympathetic. Just when the government opens support, they get back pay. The contractors are getting overlooked."

TVS is one of virtually 10,000 companies that hold contracts with federal agencies afflicted past the regime shutdown, according to an analysis of government contractor data by The Washington Postal service. The data, although incomplete and frozen by the shutdown, nevertheless shows a snapshot of the gamble to contractors, their employees and communities. The overall average value of their work: about $200 million a week.

No ane knows how many workers are afflicted, and overall estimates of total federal contract workers range from hundreds of thousands to millions. It'southward also unknown how many have had to stop work, but company and industry officials say financial pressures on contractors are building.

At R3 Government Solutions, an Arlington, Va.-based visitor that helps federal agencies with workforce planning and managing information technology resources, a few of its contract workers serving FEMA take been sent habitation without pay, said Chairman and Master Operating Officer Glenn Hartung. He has kept others on payroll for fright that they will be poached by a competitor.

"The people that are being furloughed are without pay, and the people that we're paying we're not sure how long nosotros tin can continue to do that," Hartung said. "It'southward basically kind of a turmoil."

Bureau contractors include large corporations that are non threatened. "Nosotros are watching the state of affairs carefully, but the bear on thus far on our operations has been negligible," said Jeff Davis, a vice president at Full general Dynamics, where subsidiaries have worked with affected agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Security Administration. But the shutdowns may be creating more stresses at smaller companies, where federal contract work easily plays a larger role. Nearly two-thirds of contracts with agencies affected by the shutdown were worth less than $10,000 a calendar week, co-ordinate to estimates from contracting information.

At New Editions Consulting, a Falls Church, Va., company that helps make government websites more accessible to people with disabilities, about viii of 60 workers were told to halt work on a federal contract just were put on other work. The reassignments impact the company's overhead and turn a profit margins, since the work tin't be billed to the government. "These people have families; they take kids; they accept mortgages," said the visitor president, Shelia Newman. "And then I'm going to keep them on every bit long as I tin can."

Kristian Owen packages boxes at Transylvania Vocational Services, which supplies products such as dry milk and baking mix to nutrient banks nationally and to relief efforts in Africa. (Charles Mostoller for The Washington Postal service)

Other companies have scheduled necessary training for workers idled by the shutdown or considered suggesting they take holiday days. Contract workers, unlike employees of the federal agencies impacted by the shutdown, have not gotten back pay for work lost during shutdowns.

Even with federal contracts that aren't officially suspended, companies can become mired in shutdown-related complications. Government background checks aren't available. Notices may not be published in the Federal Register. There may exist no federal employees available to corroborate completed contracted work or to make payments, issue an export license or to approve new contract workers. Contract employees who piece of work alongside government employees can't go to work fifty-fifty if they want to if the building is shuttered.

In many cases, the impact on contract employees will never be widely known considering the government keeps no records on them, and companies are often reluctant to talk publicly nearly their contract work for competitive reasons. "There'south a lot of understandable concern than you don't desire to ever offend 1 of your customers," said a contractor official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

A Transylvania Vocational Services worker monitors a production line. The company has 160 employees. (Charles Mostoller for The Washington Mail service)

What contract workers do

Contracting companies and their workers do well-nigh everything for federal agencies. They're the source for the vehicles, books, piece of furniture, nutrient and almost all of the other goods the federal government buys. Nonetheless, the purchase of products accounts for only one-5th of contract spending with agencies affected by the shutdown.

The other iv-fifths is for services.

Contractor-supplied services tin involve supporting government offices and programs, from clerical and keyboarding piece of work to budget analysis and specialized studies. "The feds are the conclusion makers," said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president of the Professional person Services Council, a national trade association of federal government contractors. "But it may be a contractor who is compiling all the data in a form for the determination maker to use."

Other contracts for services range from housekeeping and security for government-owned properties to inquiry and evolution for infinite exploration.

Federal agencies use contractors as a supplemental workforce because they can readily scale up or down to meet varying service demands, Chvotkin said. And it gives agencies admission to specialized services and highly skilled workers. "Much of the products and many of the services that the federal authorities uses in their own performance, equally well as in providing services to citizens, are done past federal employees and contractors working together," Chvotkin said.

Growth in government contracting also is fueled by political considerations, including limiting the size of the federal workforce and minimizing government's competition with business, according to Paul Low-cal, a professor of public service at New York Academy. He estimates the overall federal contractor workforce at four million, about double federal noncombatant employment. "Information technology'southward a small economy in its own right," he said.

The Commune, Virginia and Maryland may have the well-nigh at run a risk in the fallout from the shutdown because they account for 37 cents of each $1 of products or services delivered under contracts held by shuttered agencies.

Employees at Transylvania Vocational Services clock out at the finish of the day. (Charles Mostoller for The Washington Mail service)

At the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the Maryland suburbs, researchers say the shutdown is interfering with important scientific work. Meredith Elrod is a planetary scientist who works as a contractor on NASA's Maven projection, an ongoing mission to report the temper of Mars. She says scientific conferences have been canceled considering government scientists were unable to bill their travel expenses, and grants that pay some researchers' salaries have been delayed.

Elrod's project has only a few weeks of funding left. "It'southward all kind of vague every bit to whether we have money or not," Elrod said. "Nosotros get unlike answers nearly whether or not we can work, and we have no guarantee that we're ever going to get dorsum pay."

About the story

Estimates for contract amounts with federal agencies affected by the shutdown are based on analysis of contracting data from USAspending.gov. The data is incomplete and not being updated.

Photos by Charles Mostoller for The Washington Post. Photo editing by Natalia Jimenez.