On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order instituting a freeze on hiring of Federal civilian employees throughout all executive departments or agencies that took immediate effect. As a reference, USA.gov provides an index of all 15 Federal Departments and the hundreds of agencies in the federal government. As a result of this executive order, until the hiring freeze is lifted preexisting vacancies are not permitted to be filled. No new Federal civilian positions are permitted to be posted on USAJobs or any department or agency website with the exceptions outlined below. The executive order also prohibits contracting outside of the federal government.

Exceptions to the Federal Hiring Freeze

• This Federal Hiring Freeze does not impact positions in the Military personnel of the armed forces.
• There are also exceptions extended to positions pertaining to immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety.
• The Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has the authority to grant exceptions as deemed necessary.

Identifying Roles within the Exceptions

It is important to note that through these exceptions, there are still possibility of federal executive employment in a varied range of job functions. On USAJobs, job seekers can create email alerts utilizing job series codes which will provide an efficient passive job searching strategy for being informed on relevant positions. When creating job alerts, civilian students should also filter for the hiring path “open to the public.” See below for an example of how to set up alerts.

Hiring Freeze Timeline and Potential End

Within 90 days of January 20, 2025, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) must submit a plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government. Once the plan is issued, the Federal Hiring Freeze will be lifted for all executive departments and agencies, with the exception of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The OMB plan is expected to be submitted in April 2025.

The IRS does not currently have a timeline for lifting the hiring freeze; instead, the IRS may only resume hiring federal employees once the Secretary of the Treasury in communication with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the United States Department of Government Efficiency determines when it is of national interest.

Government Alternatives to Federal civilian employment in the Executive Branch

The Federal Hiring Freeze has no impact on the state and local levels. Students interested in public policy or public administration can pursue positions with various state and local government service agencies, departments, and offices of elected officials. The executive order does not impact the legislative branch including vacancies in the congressional and senate offices and committees.

Similarly, the judicial branch is not impacted by the memorandum including federal courts.

Villanova will continue to feature positions on the Nonprofit, Education, Government, and Social Impact Industries Connections Community on Career Connections and through the Featured Nonprofit/Education/Government/Social Impact Roles Handshake collection.

Staying up to Date on the Impacts of Executive Orders on the Federal Government

The Partnership for Public Service—a nonpartisan nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire a new generation of civil servants is continuing to create blog posts providing updates on the impacts of executive orders on the federal workforce. The Partnership for Public Service also covered this topic recently in their webinar “Federal Employee Explainer Series”: Federal Employee Explainer Series: What do executive orders mean for me?