Until more money can be found, for every two vacancies in the Air Force civilian ranks, only one person will be hired. The Air Force had planned to fill 21,500 new civilian positions for fiscal 2012, but only has enough money to hire about 4,000.

The Federal Times reports the Air Force isn't alone - other agencies are in the same boat. The Social Security Administration, Justice Department, the Smithsonian Institution and the State Department are also curtailing hiring plans because they expect future budgets to stay flat or even decrease.

Bill Snodgrass, the chief of manpower programming at Air Force, tells the Air Force Times that applicants who were told they would be hired before the new policy will still have a job.

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