Feeling the Impact of the Federal Hiring Freeze

In one of a series of executive orders aimed at the federal workforce, the Trump administration has directed a freeze on the hiring of federal civilian employees.

“As part of this freeze, no federal civilian position that is vacant at noon on Jan. 20, 2025, may be filled, and no new position may be created except as otherwise provided for in this memorandum or other applicable law,” read the Jan. 20 order.

The mandate applies to all executive departments and agencies, regardless of their sources of operational and programmatic funding, and does not apply to military personnel of the armed forces or positions related to immigration enforcement, national security or public safety.

On the same day the order was issued, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memo meant to provide additional guidance regarding the order, and clarify immediate actions for executive department and agency heads to take. For example, agency heads were directed to consult with the OPM in determining the scope and extent of positions covered by these mandatory exemptions, according to the memo.

As Government Executive’s Eric Katz reported, the broad exemptions to the order are beginning to come into focus.

For instance, the Department of Defense “is so far exempting all of its civilian positions from the freeze, according to multiple sources, allowing hiring for roughly 750,000 roles to continue,” Katz wrote on the heels of the order being issued.

The Veterans Affairs Department “appears poised” to exempt employees at the Veterans Benefits Administration, Katz continued. He noted, however, that Doug Collins, Trump’s pick to lead the VA, has told lawmakers that he is considering a hiring pause for some healthcare staff, informing Democratic senators they were “falsely assuming that a vacancy equated to an actual need for the department.”

Other agencies are already feeling the order’s impact. For example, the National Park Service has put hiring for more than 1,000 seasonal positions on hold since the freeze took effect, and the agency is notifying those who were told they would have jobs that those offers are being withdrawn.

As Reuters reported, the U.S. Department of Justice has rescinded job offers to law students who were set to join the agency in 2025. The order affected third-year law students who had been accepted into the Justice Department’s Attorney General’s Honor’s Program, which places new law graduates into entry-level jobs throughout the agency’s divisions, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

These students “had the rug pulled out from under them and it’s so heartbreaking,” Lois Casaleggi, associate dean of career services at the University of Chicago Law School, told Reuters. “They are trying to serve our country.”