The Alberta government imposed an immediate hiring freeze for an indefinite period of time, sending a memo to all provincial government employees on Thursday.

The freeze will be re-visited, however, at the end of August when the next quarterly fiscal update is released, Gerald Kastendieck, spokesperson for the Alberta Treasury Board, said Friday.

"The rule is that there is a hiring freeze, it means that all positions that are currently on the jobs posting board would be suspended ... jobs that are going through the hiring process at this time, would also be re-evaluated," he said.

Some exceptions

"There are some exceptions to that, they would be looked at on a one-by-one basis for jobs ... that provide critical service to Albertans," Kastendieck said.

There are currently 93 postings on the Alberta Government Jobs Board.

"We knew at budget 2009 that there was going to have to be end-year fiscal corrections and we needed to find two billion [dollars] for the subsequent budget year," he said.

"This is something that cabinet looked at and it was a decision that they decided to implement because it was something they could do now," Kastendieck said.

The last time the provincial government imposed a hiring freeze was just after the events of Sept. 11, 2001.