Areas like Muncie, without a high concentration of government workers, are not expected to see much of an economic impact, according to an analysis published Oct. 1 by the Ball State Center for Business and Economic Research.
Director of the center Michael Hicks examined the duration of all previous government shutdowns and related unemployment rates.
According to the report, the average number of a government shutdown is 7.2 days and the median length is four days. The longest shutdown between December 1995 and January 1996 lasted 21 days.
Hicks said he was not surprised to find there is no “statistically meaningful impact” on employment rates.
“I wasn’t surprised [at the findings],” he said. “If there were any effects they would be limited to areas concentrated with a lot of federal government workers like Washington, D.C. The overall economy was largely unaffected by the shutdowns we have seen over the last 35 years.”
The current government shutdown is the 18th since 1977.
