A statewide hiring freeze is effective March 17, 2010. This hiring freeze applies to all state agencies and higher education institutions, as well as the legislative and judicial branches and separately elected state officials.
The hiring freeze applies to all positions, including permanent, non-permanent, classified (includes Washington Management Service), and exempt, regardless of funding source.
Because of the impact to the health and safety of state citizens, agencies do not need to request exemptions for positions that provide the following services:
- Direct custody, supervision, and patient care in corrections, juvenile rehabilitation, institutional care of veterans, the mentally ill, developmentally disabled, state hospitals, the special commitment center, and the School for the Blind and the School for the Deaf;
- Direct protective services to children and other vulnerable populations in the Department of Social and Health Services;
- Washington State Patrol investigative services and field enforcement;
- Hazardous materials response and emergency cleanup;
- Emergency public health and patient safety response and the public health laboratory;
- Military operations and emergency management within the Military Department;
- Firefighting;
- Enforcement officers in the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Liquor Control Board, the Gambling Commission, and the Department of Natural Resources;
- Park rangers at the Parks and Recreation Commission;
- Seasonal employment by natural resources agencies to the extent that employment levels do not exceed the prior fiscal year;
- Seasonal employment in the Department of Transportation maintenance programs to the extent that employment levels do not exceed the prior fiscal year;
- Employees hired on a seasonal basis by the Department of Agriculture for inspection and certification of agricultural products and for insect detection;
- Activities directly related to tax and fee collection, revenue generation, auditing, and recovery;
- In institutions of higher education, any positions directly related to academic programs, as well as positions not funded from state funds or tuition; positions that are filled by enrolled students at their own institution as student workers, positions in campus police and security, positions related to emergency management and response, and positions related to student health care and counseling;
- Operations of the State Lottery and Liquor Control Board business enterprises;
- The unemployment insurance program of the Employment Security Department; and
- Activities necessary to receive or maintain federal funds by the state.
Specific hiring authorization from the Director of Office of Financial Management (OFM) is not required for activities that agency directors determine match the above descriptions, but agencies must keep a log of all hires that specifies the related exemption.
If an agency needs to fill critical positions that don’t fall into the automatically exempt categories, only agency directors may request an exemption by completing the “
Request for Hiring Freeze Exemption” form and submitting it to the Director of the Department of Personnel at
ExemptionRequests@dop.wa.gov for review. The request will be forwarded to the Director of OFM for final action.
For general questions about the hiring freeze, please see the following Q&A pages:
For questions about specific recruitments that are already in progress, contact the recruiting agency.
Agencies are determining their own internal processes for managing the hiring freeze and will be communicating information to their agency employees as needed.
Last updated 2/25/2010