Also, there are about two million federal employees in the United States, not including the U.S. military. About 1.2 million employees work at agencies that have ALREADY BEEN FULLY FUNDED for 2019, which means these 1.2 million government workers have nothing to worry about if the pending partial shutdown takes place. Of the remaining 800,000 Americans employed by the national government, only about 350,000 are considered “non-essential” and could be furloughed in the event of a government shutdown. Although that may seem dire to some, the furlough often ends up being more like a paid vacation. In the past, Congress has passed legislation to retroactively compensate all federal employees that were furloughed during shutdowns.