I agree with dewey02 as I too have been through this before, too. Specifically when I left a seasonal summer Park Service job to report to a USFS job for the winter. Before I was able to report to my USFS job, I encountered the same Job Freeze. I was literally out of a job, after I had traveled to my home state to pack and move to my new job location. This was during the Carter administration.
I agree that there were also freezes during the Reagan administration, as well. This is nothing new for government workers. The difference here is the timing of this freeze and the impact to those planning for their summer vacations.
The OPM (Office of Personnel Management) and hiring has changed considerably over the years and the process in hiring is very time consuming. When I first worked for the NPS (1970s), subsequently for the USPS, the hiring was done at each park. Now it is centralized, leaving the Parks waiting for these lists to be released to them before hiring. Delaying the hiring process 3 months is the issue here and the potential to impact the parks, seasonals, firefighters and recreation areas is something to be aware of.
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