hiring freeze
5
4.4
- noun
- /ˈhaɪərɪŋ friːz/
:
congelación de contrataciones
- The company announced a hiring freeze to manage its budget more effectively.
- layoffs and hiring freeze
Examples
-
An official hiring freeze, however, is not in the works.
Blog text (18) -
I don't know if anybody's told you, but I.B.M.'s having a hiring freeze.
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They announced a hiring freeze last year!
-
Due to budget cuts, there is a hiring freeze on hiring probation officers.
Blog text (20) -
Today we are in a 28-month hiring freeze.
Blog text (13) -
The number of midwives recruited into the public service has also been increasing, with the exception of a hiring freeze in 2005.
Blog text (28) -
We've had a hiring freeze for the last two years," he clucked.
Fiction book (1995) -
People started to leave, and they weren't replaced: around December 2011, the company instituted a hiring freeze.
Blog text (11) -
The PTO faces a $200 million shortfall in 2010 and began a hiring freeze early in 2009.
Academic text (2010) -
Courts throughout the nation have struggled with layoffs, hiring freezes, and cutbacks in services.
Academic text (1994)
Synonyms
154
5.3
Officially stop an activity, for example the use of money or assets
How Extensive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a suspension of hiring' is directly and compositionally derived from 'hiring' (recruiting new staff) combined with 'freeze' (a stop or suspension). This is a common English compounding pattern (e.g., 'wage freeze', 'hiring freeze') and has clear parallels in other languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily understand it.
Etymology
Hiring freeze uses a simple image: picture hiring being turned to ice by a freeze, so nothing can move or start. That's why it means 'a temporary stop to hiring'.