When Is the Federal Hiring Freeze Over? What Replaced It

The federal hiring freeze does not have an end date. The original freeze that began on January 20, 2025 was extended twice and then replaced on October 15, 2025 by Executive Order 14356, which makes hiring restrictions indefinite and requires most agencies to hire no more than one new employee for every four who leave.¹ If you have been waiting for federal hiring to return to normal, it hasn’t, and the current framework is designed to keep the federal workforce shrinking. Since January 2025, the federal government has shed more than 264,000 employees through the freeze, early retirement incentives, and reductions in force.²

How the Freeze Went From Temporary to Indefinite

The original Presidential Memorandum signed on Inauguration Day prohibited filling any vacant federal civilian position or creating new ones across executive departments and agencies. It gave the Office of Management and Budget 90 days to develop a workforce reduction plan, after which the freeze would expire.³

The 90-day clock ran out and the freeze stayed. A second memorandum on April 17, 2025 extended it through July 15.⁴ A third memorandum on July 7 pushed the deadline to October 15. Each extension kept the same core rule: no new hires outside exempt categories.

Rather than let the October 15 deadline pass, the administration issued Executive Order 14356, titled “Ensuring Continued Accountability in Federal Hiring.” The order removes any scheduled expiration and adds procedural requirements that go well beyond a blanket freeze.¹

What Replaced the Freeze

Under the current framework, no vacant federal civilian position may be filled and no new position may be created except through the approval process the order establishes.¹

Every agency must run a Strategic Hiring Committee that approves each individual hire. Committees must include the deputy agency head and the chief of staff, and they must send written notice of every approved hire to OPM.⁵ Agencies also have to submit Annual Staffing Plans developed with OPM and OMB, followed by quarterly progress reports starting in the second quarter of fiscal year 2026.¹

The most consequential restriction is the four-to-one attrition ratio: for most positions, agencies can hire only one new employee for every four who depart. The ratio applies going forward, using departures from the current fiscal year. Employees who left through the Deferred Resignation Program or other separations in FY 2025 do not count, so agencies cannot bank earlier losses to justify a hiring surge now.⁵ Positions related to national security, immigration enforcement, or public safety are not subject to the ratio.

Which Positions Are Still Being Filled

Some categories have been exempt throughout the entire period. The original OMB and OPM guidance carved out mandatory exemptions for immigration enforcement, national security, and public safety positions.⁶ The October 2025 executive order preserves these and confirms that military personnel and Executive Office of the President staff are not covered.¹

The original guidance also exempted positions affecting Social Security, Medicare, or veterans’ care.⁷ Agency heads can exempt additional positions they deem necessary for national security or public safety, including activities that protect life and property.⁶ OPM retains authority to grant additional case-by-case exceptions, and exemptions previously granted under the January and July 2025 memoranda remain in effect unless specifically withdrawn.⁵ For all exempt categories, hiring must prioritize veterans in accordance with veterans’ preference statutes.

The IRS Is a Special Case

The IRS sits under its own open-ended freeze. The January 2025 memorandum stated that the IRS restriction would remain in effect even after the general freeze expired, and only the Secretary of the Treasury, consulting with OMB and the U.S. DOGE Service, can determine that lifting it is in the national interest.³ No such determination has been publicly announced. For IRS applicants specifically, the outlook is worse than for other agencies.

Contractors Are Not a Workaround

A natural assumption is that agencies would replace frozen positions with contractors. That route is explicitly blocked. From the first guidance memo, agencies were prohibited from contracting with commercial vendors for services substantially similar to what a federal employee in a frozen position would have provided.⁶ The April 2025 extension repeated the prohibition.⁴

Under the current order, contractors also cannot be used to evade the four-to-one ratio. Agencies can ask OPM to count contractor reductions toward the ratio, effectively trading contractor positions for federal slots, but the agency cannot backfill those contractor positions afterward, and the new employee’s total compensation cannot exceed what the contractor was paid.⁵

What This Means If You’re Looking for a Federal Job

Federal hiring is happening in 2026, at a fraction of its former pace. Positions tied to national security, immigration enforcement, and public safety are the most accessible entry points. For everything else, the Strategic Hiring Committee process adds layers of approval, and the four-to-one ratio means most agencies have few slots to fill.p>

USAJOBS is still the primary portal, and some agencies have continued posting openings in exempt categories throughout the period. An active posting has presumably cleared the necessary approval hurdles, but the volume of postings is far below the pre-freeze baseline, and competition for each opening is heavy.

What This Means If You Already Work for the Government

Several internal personnel actions are protected even under the strictest phase of the restrictions:

Career ladder promotions in positions with built-in promotion potential are exempt.⁶
Reassignments and details within your agency are allowed to meet priority needs.⁶
Both reimbursable and non-reimbursable interagency details are allowed, provided they are not used to evade the restrictions.⁶
Existing temporary or term appointments can be extended to their maximum allowable time limit.⁶

Within-grade step increases are governed by statute and were not suspended.⁸ Senior Executive Service members can transfer between agencies in limited numbers and subject to OPM approval.⁶

What Could Actually End the Restrictions

Because Executive Order 14356 has no expiration, the restrictions will remain in place until the president rescinds them or Congress or the courts force a change. The president’s authority to freeze hiring is broad but not unlimited. When Congress appropriates funds for specific positions or programs, the executive branch is generally required to spend those funds. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 restricts the president’s ability to delay or cancel enacted spending, classifying any withholding as either a deferral (temporary, within the current fiscal year) or a rescission (a proposed cancellation Congress must approve within 45 days).⁹

The Comptroller General at the Government Accountability Office monitors whether executive actions cross that line and can bring civil action in federal court to compel release of funds.⁹ Several legal challenges related to workforce reductions and hiring restrictions have moved through the courts since early 2025, with mixed outcomes so far. Congress can also override restrictions through appropriations bills that mandate hiring for specific agencies or programs; when a bill funds a set number of positions and directs an agency to fill them, that statutory obligation can supersede an executive memorandum. Whether that happens in practice depends on the political dynamics in Congress and whether agencies push back against White House directives.

1
The White House. Ensuring Continued Accountability in Federal Hiring
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Workforce Changes
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The White House. Hiring Freeze
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The White House. Extension of Hiring Freeze
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Guidance on Executive Order 14356
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Office of Personnel Management. Federal Civilian Hiring Freeze Guidance
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Frequently Asked Questions – Extended Federal Civilian Hiring Freeze
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Fact Sheet: Within-Grade Increases
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U.S. GAO. Impoundment Control Act