White House Issues Federal Hiring Freeze

President Trump signed a memorandum implementing an immediate hiring freeze on all executive branch agencies, unless they meet a specialized exception. The freeze exempts military personnel and provides agencies with the ability to continue to fill vacant civilian positions that have “national security or public safety responsibilities.”

“A hiring freeze will be harmful and counterproductive, increasing backlogs, decreasing service quality and causing more frustration for Americans seeking help from their government,” said National President Tony Reardon.

NTEU strongly opposes this hiring freeze. It will increase workloads on already overburdened federal employees. As the Government Accountability Office previously reported, hiring freezes are inefficient and have no money-saving effect.

That was the message in a letter sent to President-elect Trump by more than 100 members of Congress, urging him not to take this step.