BATON ROUGE – Governor Bobby Jindal on Thursday announced a limited hiring freeze for the Executive Branch. The order prohibits the filling of any new or existing vacancies in executive branch positions in the state in order to limit or control the growth in government positions and to prepare for the budget challenges to come. The hiring freeze order also applies to higher education and healthcare.

As the order states, "Fiscal management practices dictate that the best interests of the citizens of the State of Louisiana will be served by the implementation of a hiring freeze in the executive branch of state government to achieve at least a state general fund dollar savings of $17 million".

The freeze order also applies to higher education and states that 'Higher education plays a vital role for the citizens of our state; and, in addition, higher education in Louisiana has a unique management structure. Recognizing this, the Commissioner of Higher Education shall have the authority to manage the positions within higher education, including the hospitals, within the confines of this Executive Order and any subsequent memorandum issued by the Commissioner of Administration as authorized by this Order limiting the number of Table of Organization (T.O.) and Non-T.O. Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs)".

The Healthcare industry is also included in the order stating, "Due to the critical nature of direct patient care and direct public safety positions, special consideration is given to provide more flexibility to the departments in hiring these positions".

The executive ordered hiring freeze lists several departments affected by the hiring freeze including Tourism, Public Safety, Veterans Affairs and Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service.