How federal workers are reacting to a promise of a buyout. I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. Millions of federal workers have until tomorrow, Thursday, to decide whether to accept a buyout promising, at least, pay through September if they quit now. The Trump administration styles it as a long paid vacation, but the arrangement is not set in stone.

And unions are urging members not to take it. Marketplaces Nancy Marshall-Genzor has the latest.

There are about 2 million federal workers. About 20,000 have taken the buyout offer so far, as first reported by Axios.

So that's only about 1% of the workforce. Unions for federal employees

are telling them not to accept the offer. Three unions filed a lawsuit yesterday. They're seeking

a temporary restraining order that would put the buyout offer on pause. They say it's illegal

because it's not clear how the Trump administration would pay for it when Congress hasn't

appropriated any money. They're worried federal workers are being, quote, intimidated into making

hasty decisions based on misleading information. The Office of Personnel Management laid out

the offer in an email to federal employees about a week ago. Resigned by February 6th, it says,

and you'll receive all pay and benefits until September 30th. The letter warns federal workers.

There's no guarantee they'd keep their jobs if they stayed because, quote, the majority of

federal agencies are likely to be downsized. I'm Nancy Marshall Genser for Marketplace.

Americans are still out there spending, even as we track signs of economic hardship. The number of

help-wanted job openings is down sharply. The Federal Reserve in New York finds more are late-paying

debt, and a bank rate report finds that last year, nearly half of loan applications got denied with auto loans and mortgage refinancings.

Those rejections hitting a record high, marketplaces Kaylee Wells has that.

There are two big reasons that have led to more loan rejections, says Scott Baker.

He teaches finance at Northwestern University.

The first, interest rates are still relatively high.

It is kind of more dangerous potentially to grant additional credit because for the same

level of income, a household will be able to support kind of less debt.

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