#hiringfreeze

Hi all, it’s been a while since Fidelity paused visa sponsorships and hiring. Many contractors’ current contracts are due to end in about a month, but we haven’t received any updates. Does anyone know what’s happening? I’ve been working as a contractor for five years, and I expected to hear about a new contract extension by now. Any idea what is happening internal ?

The Bank of England's latest report indicates that artificial intelligence has had a minimal effect on overall UK employment thus far. While AI adoption is not leading to significant layoffs, companies are becoming less likely to hire new staff or replace departing employees. This trend is expected to persist as AI-driven productivity gains continue to grow. Firms anticipate that a portion of these future gains will be realized through maintaining smaller workforces. This subtle shift in hiring practices may go unnoticed if only overall unemployment figures are monitored.

London, England

https://www.resultsense.com/news/2026-11-06-boe-ai-slowing-hiring-not-firing/

We wouldn't need so many cuts if we simply stopped hiring for a while.

Hi everyone, does anyone in support have any idea how to get out of this sh-t hole?
I've been in the same role for six years now. Given the freeze and the country I'm in, which offers very few requisitions, do you have any ideas on how to change roles, such as moving into Sales? Do certifications really help you be more attractive? Or is it just a lie?
Obviously I didn't find anything out there, which is why I'm still here

I was interviewing for a role that got paused/cut due to company restructuring. Does anyone know if they will begin to open up old job reqs anytime soon?

Seton Hall laid off 46 people in the fall 2026 semester and is requesting voluntary separations from union and non-union staff to offset a multi-million dollar deficit for the 2026-27 fiscal year. They have frozen salaries and raises and say they have frozen hiring but continue to post multiple job openings for administrative positions and faculty.

I know several in house and external applicants that have applications stuck in progress. Anyone know if we have a hiring freeze? It’s weird to apply for jobs early October late September and not hear ANYTHING for months. Lol

Reports suggest Canva might be planning further layoffs or a hiring freeze soon. This follows a recent reduction of 32 employees in the technical content department. Despite strong user growth in the past year, the company has significantly lowered its revenue projections for the upcoming year. CEO Melanie Perkins acknowledged that forecasts have not met initial expectations but emphasized a commitment to an AI-driven strategy. The company has not officially confirmed these potential workforce changes.

Sydney, Australia

https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/business/canva-may-announce-another-round-of-layoffs-in-november-report-claims-hiring-freeze-also-possible/articleshow/135466815.cms

Alturas City Council is meeting to discuss significant budget cuts that include proposed police layoffs. The city is considering eliminating three officer positions and one dispatcher role. This action would represent approximately 60% of the department's current workforce. A hiring freeze for other city departments is also on the agenda. The council will also vote on the upcoming fiscal year's budget.

Alturas, California

https://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/modoc-county/alturas-police-layoffs-on-the-table-at-special-city-meeting-thursday-morning/article_40b84c2e-a1f7-4fef-a8a2-847c7823d0c7.html

Even amid all the cuts, there are still hundreds of open positions. If you don't believe me, go and check. How does that make sense? We're supposedly getting rid of people to save money, while hiring more folks at the same time. Why not implement a hiring freeze instead of layoffs?

Senior exec left suddenly to second line. Existing exec to take over while keeping existing team. Having to fill out surveys justifying job duties. Hiring freeze for months. Things aren’t looking good.

Parks Canada is initiating a second phase of workforce adjustment, impacting nearly 3,000 employees. This move is part of a broader strategy to achieve budget reduction targets through organizational transformation. The agency is sending out "affected" letters to notify staff whose positions may no longer be required. This process aims to facilitate voluntary departures and reshape the organization for greater efficiency. The agency has also implemented hiring freezes and approved early retirement requests.

Ottawa, Ontario

https://ottawacitizen.com/public-service/parks-canada-layoffs-workforce-adjustment

For the past year Cigna has had a hiring freeze and only hiring in Hyderabad. The directive was that U.S. employees can only be hired by exception if no one can be found to fill the role in HIH. IT has a team of Indian people on site in the corporate offices managing all hires. Don’t know how they are doing it but if you walk around the offices you will see a huge majority of India employees in the U.S. offices now. In September they laid off a lot of finance people and brought in all new people in Hyderabad. They notified them in June and made them stay till September training and getting the new HIH people who were taking over their roles onboarded. This will not end as Cigna just cares about cheaper labor regardless of how it impacts U.S. qualified employees. Until the government steps in we will continue to loose our jobs skilled corporate roles here in the U.S.

I thought we were on a hiring freeze or did I get the wrong email. Tell me why every day you look on linkedin and there are 30 people posting about new roles they were just awarded? Not to mention, teams are doing interviews and telling folks they can not extend offers until Q1. Why even waste your time when there is a reorg on the horizen and HR is going to fill the position. Oh wait, your doing the interviews behind HR"s back thinking your going to have the upper hand. This is just another prime example of how broken the system is. Does the left talk to the right...or does no one respect the voice of Ram?

So, here I am doing 3 jobs because we are on a hiring freeze and no one cares...my location is falling apart at the seems. I am supposed to care about CDA's, Summit and yet I am a ASM having to run a selling route because we cant get approval for roles to be posted.

100s of posts on cuts at JPM, but what about people who resign or retire?

Are those positions actually getting filled or is management just spreading the work around and calling it efficiency? This comes across as a silent layoff.

Curious if anyone in CCB, CIB or tech has seen a backfill approved recently. Could this be how they're reducing headcount without announcing more layoffs?

Not sure about cuts in Jan... If true prety much all roles are vulnerable especially anything that can be automated or replaced by AI. The rumors also points to heavier outsourcing to multiple global hubs and a potential freeze on US hiring. OK, I can believe that...
It may be just grapevine talk, so I'm taking it with a grain of salt. But what really made me pause was how it came up. The context wasn't even supposed to be about job cuts; it was a conversation about someone interviewing for a VP role in NYC. They got a verbal salary offer and a projected start date, and then completely hit a brick wall just total radio silence while management suddenly decided to interview more candidates.
Someone else chimed in to say that the NYC offices have already been absolutely gutted by the workforce reductions earlier this year.
It makes me wonder if these two things are connected. Is leadership seriously still putting people through the ringer for US roles while drawing up blueprints for January cuts? Or are hiring managers just stuck in limbo, waiting on headcount approvals that are never going to come???????????????
Is anyone on the inside hearing anything concrete about January, particularly within Technology - Cards - Ops ? And are managers actually openly throwing around "AI" as a justification to slash headcount?

Saratoga Springs faces a significant budget shortfall projected at $4.7 million for the upcoming year. To address this, the city's finance commissioner has proposed an 18% property tax hike. The plan also includes extending the current hiring freeze and implementing substantial staffing reductions, potentially affecting the fire department. These measures are intended to correct an "underlying structural imbalance" in the city's finances. The proposed budget aims to decrease overall spending by 1.3% from the previous year.

Saratoga Springs, New York

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/saratoga-springs-proposed-layoffs-tax-hike-22468108.php

Why are most of these reqs frozen?

Is the hiring freeze still going on within consulting?

Since Dan Griffith has joined he has slowly made life miserable for the Tech teams.
Under the current modernization strategy, sudden organizational shifts and budget cuts have created an unstable environment.
• Hiring freezes and roadblocks make it incredibly difficult for highly integrated vendor staff to transition to permanent, direct-hire roles.
• Resource constraints mean remaining teams are stretched thin, handling heavier workloads with less structural support.
Work culture has eroded gradually due to unreasonable demands from the CTO. I remember when this used to be a fun place to work!

Hiring Freeze
Fixed Cost Reductions (Riff/Furloughs)
Layer Removals

Who knows what’s in store for the near future ?

“Beckman coulter diagnostics (soon sciex) is experiencing withheld raises, layoffs, and rescinded bonuses so far in 2025. As well as hiring freezes though there have been a few external hires to support china for china”

Who made this post? You are an oracle.

Positions getting cancelled mid-recruitment process… why?

Only strategy that leadership has in their playbook. In conjunction with layoffs. It’s embarrassing…….

is the company in a hiring freeze? is it pure layoffs now?

Are external applicants ever seriously considered for roles? And is HCSC even hiring right now or are the job postings all fake? Mixes messages as our department says there is a hiring freeze yet new jobs are posted daily.

I’ve (my whole team really) has been told again and again that there is a hiring freeze, but also if we want to move up at Nike, we would do best to seek positions outside of our current team or function. Yet, I know of more than one person who was either fired, or let go, but has been welcomed back to Nike with open arms and celebration.
Seems like goal setting and garbage Ted talks would have benefited us all more if they had been focused on how best to kiss butt and move up.

So now we have a hiring freeze again as well as possible layoffs? Another push to come back 4 days a week (yeah it’s been policy for a while but now being tracked like elementary school students)? How can we possibly expect to retain talent and become a better company when morale is at an all time low?

Hearing whispers about possible layoffs, reorganizations, hiring freezes, or team cuts?

Post what you’ve heard below. Please label everything as unverified rumor/speculation, avoid naming or identifying individual employees, and don’t share confidential or proprietary information.

Useful details:

What was the rumor?
Which department/area was it about?
When did you hear it?
Was it firsthand or secondhand?
How confident are you?
Let’s keep this thread focused on separating rumor from confirmed information. If something gets officially confirmed, update your comment so others know.

Layoffs and work transferred to offshore. No new software development effort. Company is in "keep lights on" mode. No new hiring in US. Only transfer of India employees on L1 visa allowed, and that too in rare and extreme cases.
There will be wave after wave of layoff coming up. Employees at staff level are just numbers. Executives level don't care anything other than their bonus.
We are all stuck in mud, waiting our day to get riffed.

Rumor is there is a hiring freeze. That makes sense with the state of the business, but I’ve seen 20+ people leave and mostly not get replaced. Just in the past 3 months.. In the few instances they have, the backfills old role remains open and the backfill is doing multiple jobs.

The vast majority that I have seen leave are actually good at what they do. Every one that I spoke to also confirmed they were getting paid much more at their new jobs outside the company. They have silently departed.

My boss is always nice and supportive, but I can tell that he is nervous too. He was very professional when I asked him about but said “at Pepsi, you always have to see the focus trends early and be prepared for layoffs at any time.” He’s been here 15+ years and knows his stuff, but I can tell it’s is really wearing on him lately.

What I need to remind myself is to start looking for another job now. Those 20 people were senior levels to me and good. That is a sign of how employees are being valued. The smart people figured this out before me.

There's going to be waves of people leaving in September when the RTO policy goes into effect, and when Executive Leadership(ELT) realizes the reduction in payroll expenses isn't quite hitting the goals set by TPG, they are going to do mass layoffs. Entire departments will be eliminated if not reduced to a skeleton crew. High cost centers like Product Development will probably see substantial cuts, simply because most of that department live more than 30 miles away from an office, they're not going to cover relocation fees so it's easier to just cut. We are already seeing hiring freezes in PD when long-tenured software engineers left with no backfilling, budget constraints is the excuse given. I estimate that there will be massive RIFs in mid-October through December, then they will probably announce it in January 2027 just like last year.

New Orleans' incoming mayor, Helena Moreno, has announced significant job cuts and furloughs to address a projected budget deficit. The city faces a $222.4 million shortfall if current spending continues. Moreno cited "complete mismanagement" by the previous administration as the cause. These measures include eliminating 36 unclassified positions and 75% of probationary employees, totaling 62 roles. Additionally, a hiring freeze will be implemented, and 724 employees will face one furlough day per pay period.

New Orleans, Louisiana

https://www.wdsu.com/article/new-orleans-job-cuts-furloughs-2026/69544120

I’m trying to figure out what the long-term plan is for the French site post-acquisition, because the messaging we're getting locally is incredibly concerning and honestly makes zero sense.
I’m in a very profitable BU. We have the budget and desperately need the headcount, so we went to put in a job requisition. I was flat-out told that the company has decided not to make any future hires in France from now onward. Period.

This is right on the heels of the recent layoffs where we lost over 60 people on the Ansys France side (around 10% of the local workforce). The layoffs were executed pretty smoothly here, so a sudden, permanent-sounding hiring freeze immediately after feels totally out of left field.

What really baffles me is the geography of it all. France has historically been Ansys’s third largest presence globally, right behind the US and India. We used to easily have 10 to 30 open positions at any given time. We’ve always hired heavily here because we have massive customers right in our backyard and the engineering talent for Ansys products is top-tier.

Yet, from what I can tell, this strict "no more hiring" rule isn't being pushed on most other geographies.

If we are profitable and have the talent, why the hard stop just on France? It creates so much uncertainty about the future of the site. It feels like they are just going to let attrition bleed us dry. Has anyone else heard this directive from leadership? Are they quietly planning to phase out French operations entirely?

Company wide, just Boston?
Can anyone confirm or is this just heresay and rumors?
Of so, why even move forward with interesting internal applicants?
Doesn’t that just alienate loyal employees?
Personality, I think all the bad policies of outsourcing, visas, dei, etc is coming home to roost.
You get what you vote for and I don’t see this fixing anytime soon.
I think this is it for what we know and expect in corporate America.
We’re all just cogs in an 8 billion human machine.

That feeling when a return offer was within your grasp... and then taken away...

Had an great internal transfer lined up and then this "non-financial non-budgeting" induced hiring freeze. If they couldn't figure out the RTO space needs and lift the hiring freeze sooner, will seriously consider external opportunities, as where I currently am is a sick place.

So, HRs in the know, when will the hiring freeze end?

Is the hiring freeze of external senior talent ever coming to an end? Only hiring happening is college hires, which is fine, but there is also a dire need of senior talent.