URS Corp., a U.S. engineering-advisory company, said the federal government’s shutdown forced the furlough of about 3,000 employees and may spur more layoffs if the impasse continues.
The total includes employees idled by the closing of a government facility where they work or directives from U.S. officials to halt operations or cut staffing, San Francisco- based URS said in a statement.
“The government shutdown, the continuing effects of sequestration and uncertainty about the federal budget are all having negative impacts on URS and many other government contractors,” Chief Financial Officer H. Thomas Hicks said in the statement. “We hope the situation is resolved as soon as possible to avoid additional impact on our federal business and our employees.”
URS’s pullback showed the spreading effect on private business from the partial closing of government operations that began Oct. 1 with furloughs for about 800,000 federal workers. The shutdown is draining an average of $160 million each workday from the $15.7 trillion U.S. economy, according to IHS Inc., a Lexington, Massachusetts-based global market-research firm.