With all the reporting of layoffs and hiring freezes, a number like 8,000 usually refers these days to the number of folks who've lost jobs.
But that figure actually represents the amount of add-ons to the state's payroll, the Buffalo News reported Thursday.
Despite Gov. David A. Paterson's order of a hard freeze last year, the state has hired on thousands of workers from college professors to snowplow operators, according to the report.
More than 100 of the new state staffers are earning salaries topping $100,000 -- a total of at least $10 million.
Among those is a new department head at the University of Buffalo, where she is making $250,000, the report said.
Paterson's team said the more than half of the hires were at agencies outside of the governor's control. He could only ask those offices to heed the freeze, but couldn't make orders, according to the report.