The government shutdown has just entered its third week, leaving 800,000 employees out of the office without pay until the government reopens. It turns out that the furloughed folks have turned to online dating!

Zoosk’s user base of 40 million singles includes many DC-area daters. We decided to find out if there is any correlation between the government shutdown and dating…and it turns out that furloughed Washingtonians are flirting far more!

Comparing the week before the shutdown to the two weeks following, we discovered that the shutdown has certainly opened up the DC dating scene, specifically:

• More people looking to meet up: During the first and second week of the shutdown, the number of times DC-area Zoosk members have indicated a desire to meet up with another single through our Zoosk Carousel feature increased by 91.6% and 110%, respectively.

• More people are looking at profiles: During the second week of the shutdown, the number of profiles viewed by DC-area Zoosk members jumped by 45.6%.

• More instant messages are being sent: The second week of the shutdown showed a 48% increase in the number of instant messages sent between logged-in users in the DC area.

• More new active users are signing up: Zoosk saw new users in the DC area grow by 4.3% and 17.6% in the first and second week of the shutdown, respectively. These users have all verified their accounts and uploaded at least one photo.

In the wake of this frustrating situation, we’re glad that Zoosk’s mission of empowering people to lead a more fulfilling love life is bringing those out of work some happiness and, hopefully, some fantastic connections.

Happy Zoosking!