URS Furloughs 3,000 Workers Due To Federal Shutdown

(RTTNews) - Engineering and technical services provider URS Corp. (URS), Thursday said it has temporarily laid off about 3000 employees from work due to the federal government shutdown. The engineering and construction company also warned that the number of furloughed employees might increase if the shutdown continues.

The total number includes employees who were furloughed due to closing of a government facility or temporarily laid off because of directions received from the government to stop work or reduce staffing levels. URS provides engineering, construction, and technical services to public agencies and private sector clients.

In a statement, Financial Chief Thomas Hicks said, "The government shutdown, the continuing effects of sequestration, and uncertainty about the federal budget are all having negative impacts on URS and many other government contractors. We hope the situation is resolved as soon as possible to avoid additional impact on our federal business and our employees."

In the U.S., almost 800,000 federal employees of the more than 2 million government employees were furloughed due to the partial shutdown of government operations when the federal fiscal year began on October 1.

The first government shutdown in seventeen years comes after lawmakers failed to break an impasse and reach an agreement on a temporary spending bill for the new fiscal year.

British defense and security firm BAE Systems Plc (BA.L, BAESY.PK) also temporarily directed about 1,200 employees across its intelligence & security and support solutions businesses not to report to work for now.

URS is currently trading at $52.08, up $0.37 or 0.72%, on the NYSE.