Unemployment Rate on Capitol Hill Could Surge

A change in power in Congress can leave a lot of people looking for something else to do:

If Republicans sweep the House and win key Senate seats in November, it’s not just elected Democrats who will be unemployed — more than 1,500 Democratic staffers could lose their jobs, with layoffs stretching from low-wage staff assistants to six-figure committee aides.

While turnover and job loss is a fact of life for those who serve in Congress, a change in party control can be dramatic as committee funding is slashed for the party falling out of power and hundreds of high-salary jobs switch hands.

The layoffs start with election losers. Each House office employs about 18 people, and each Senate office employs about 34. But the heaviest job loss happens in committees, which employ hundreds of highly paid experts and attorneys. In the House, the majority controls 66 percent of the committee budget, meaning if Democrats shift to the minority, they would control only about one-third of committee funds, potentially leaving hundreds of committee staffers unemployed if Republicans sweep the House.

While there are no signs yet of a Hill-wide stampede, some Democratic aides say they are bracing for the worst.

“I think people underestimate how disastrous this could be,” said one House Democratic aide, whose member faces an uphill climb. “The job pool could shrink tremendously, and then the available jobs will be in very high demand. All sorts of people who are overqualified for things could be looking for jobs.”

In 1994 I worked with a guy who had a lot of friends on Capitol Hill who suddenly found themselves out of work when the Republican wave swept their bosses out of office. That's the way these things go, but I'm trying to remember a similar article when it looked like a bunch of Republicans would be put out of office in 2006.  I don't remember the same level of concern.