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State government agencies are now free to start adding employees again after Governor Hochul announces that a hiring freeze has been lifted.
The freeze, which went into effect at the start of the COVID-19 crisis last year, is suspended through the end of the current fiscal year. The workforce at state agencies has fallen dramatically during the pandemic from about 118,000 people last March to just over 107,000 employees last month. Officials say that decline has mostly been connected to attrition.