Furlough

Temporary leave of employees due to special needs of employer A furlough (/ˈfɜːrloʊ/; from Dutch: verlof, "leave of absence") is a temporary cessation of paid employment that is intended to address the problems of a company or employer; these problems may be due to economic conditions that affect a specific employer, or to those prevailing in society as a whole. Furloughs may be short-term or long-term. They are also known as temporary layoffs. By country United States US federal government In the United States, involuntary furloughs concerning federal government employees may be of a sudden and immediate nature. Such was the case in February 2010, when a single United States Senate objection prevented emergency funding measures from being implemented. As a result, 2,000 federal workers for the Department of Transportation were immediately furloughed as of March 1, 2010. The longest such case is the October 1st to November 12, 2025, shutdown, which has affected all non-essential employees, shutting down many services including National Institutes of Health, visa and passport processing, parks, and many others. This happened previously on October 1, 2013, and on January 19, 2018