FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2008
Contact: Michael DiResto, 225-342-7000

Hiring freeze update: State payroll down since December, holding steady since hiring freeze ordered

Baton Rouge - The most recent two-week state payroll is down $3.5 million compared to the final full pay period of 2007 and has held steady, or lower by $314,000, from the last payroll period ending before a statewide government hiring freeze was ordered, according to figures released today by Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis.

A limited state government hiring freeze was enacted by Gov. Bobby Jindal by executive order on January 15, his first full day in office.

According to the Office of State Uniform Payroll, gross wages for the state agencies whose payments they oversee were the following for the paydays listed:

December 21, 2007: $87,913,346.95
January 18, 2008: $84,714,179.81
March 28, 2008: $84,399,933.90

'The payroll figures show that we are achieving the goals set by Governor Jindal's executive order to control government growth and save taxpayer dollars,' Davis said.

The executive order authorized Commissioner Davis to grant hiring exemptions 'on a case by case basis or by category,' and on January 17 the commissioner issued to state departments and agencies implementation guidelines for the exemption request process, consisting of a full, written, 10-point justification for the request.

The figures below include exemptions requested for vacancies that existed at the start of the hiring freeze as well as all those for positions that became vacant since that time.

Information relevant to Executive Order BJ 2008-03, 'Limited Hiring Freeze'

Position exemption requests received, as of April 1: 5,679
Position exemption requests approved: 4,118
Position exemption requests that were not approved: 693
Position exemption requests under review by Office of Planning and Budget: 868

Significant components of the reported numbers

2,405 position exemptions approved are for Full Time Equivalent positions (FTEs) from Higher Education
793 position exemptions approved are from the Department of Health and Hospitals, including 687 direct patient care workers
154 position exemptions approved are from Corrections Services, including 72 correctional security officers, 54 health services workers, and 22 probation and patrol officers
124 position exemptions approved are from the Department of Veterans Affairs, including 122 direct patient care workers for war veterans homes
106 position exemptions approved are from the Secretary of State, including 60 Registrar of Voters typists and 35 part-time voting machine mechanics