Which federal job categories were designated excepted during the 2025 shutdown and how many employees worked without pay?
Executive summary
During the October–November 2025 lapse in appropriations, agencies designated “excepted” employees—those required to protect life, property, or national security—to keep working without pay, a group that independent estimates put in the hundreds of thousands; one widely cited estimate is roughly 730,000 civilian employees continued to work without pay during the shutdown [1] [2]. The specific job categories marked excepted were those tied to safety and national security (air traffic control, TSA, CBP, some Social Security office functions, military and law enforcement), but agencies retained broad discretion under OMB and OPM guidance, producing variation in counts and public reporting [3] [4] [2] [5].
1. What “excepted” means and the legal framework that produced it
“Excepted” is a statutory and administrative classification used during funding lapses to identify work that must continue despite an appropriations lapse; OMB’s A-11 guidance and subsequent OPM instructions lay out the four broad categories agencies generally use while giving agencies latitude to decide specific positions, and OPM guidance confirms excepted employees continue working but may not receive pay until appropriations are restored [2] [5] [6].
2. The headline categories: safety, national security, and legally mandated duties
Reporting across government and nonprofit analysts consistently shows that excepted workers were concentrated in functions tied to protecting life or government property and carrying out statutory duties—examples repeatedly cited include air traffic controllers and FAA safety staff, Transportation Security Administration officers, Customs and Border Protection agents, many Social Security Administration front‑line staff needed to prevent immediate harm, federal law enforcement, and active‑duty military personnel [3] [4] [7] [8].
3. How many people worked without pay: competing estimates and the best available numbers
National estimates vary because agencies report differently, but the Bipartisan Policy Center estimated about 730,000 civilian employees continued to work without pay over the October 2025 shutdown and noted the broader toll of withheld pay—roughly 3 million paychecks impacted and an estimated $14 billion in withheld wages based on average pay assumptions [1]. Other contemporaneous coverage and nonprofit trackers described daily furlough counts in the hundreds of thousands and described the excepted workforce as part of a larger pool of roughly 670,000 furloughed employees and several hundred thousand others required to work without pay, with some outlets rounding to about 750,000 working without pay on any given day [1] [3] [9].
4. Why public numbers diverge: agencies, definitions and political framing
Numbers diverge because agencies exercise discretion under OMB/OPM guidance when classifying jobs as excepted, because some positions are funded outside annual appropriations (and thus paid) while others are not, and because research groups and news organizations use different baselines and snapshots [2] [5] [10]. Political messaging also skews focus—advocates and some lawmakers emphasize the human toll and frontline absences, while others emphasize statutory protections and eventual retroactive pay—creating incentives to highlight either the large furlough counts or the size of the excepted workforce depending on the speaker’s agenda [4] [9].
5. Practical consequences and the statutory remedy
Excepted employees generally were required to work without pay during the lapse and, under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act and OPM/OMB instructions, are entitled to retroactive pay when funding resumes, but practical hardship, increased absences, and operational strain (flight delays, reduced SSA office hours) were widely reported during the shutdown and complicated agency operations even when back pay was legally guaranteed [5] [11] [4] [8].