A recruitment freeze has been announced by Leicester City Council in an effort to cut costs.
Staff have been told there will be no new appointments – unless there are "truly exceptional" circumstances – for the foreseeable future.
The council has about 8,200 employees, excluding school staff who are not affected by the measure, which was announced in an e-mail to all staff on Thursday from chief operating officer Andy Keeling.
Some staff have warned a failure to replace departing staff will lead to even greater workloads for those remaining, affecting council services.
Staff numbers have been declining in recent years as the council contends with cuts in funding from the Government
Mr Keeling wrote: "As you know, this year we have to implement £18 million of savings from our revenue budget and a further £13 million next year – as well as dealing with all of the other financial pressures that service managers have been reporting over the past couple of months.
"In addition to this, we have to save a further £70 million by 2017/18. All of these savings are a direct result of the reductions to the Government's grant to the council.
"After reviewing our recent budget performance I am keen to ensure we are doing all we can to make the savings needed while avoiding compulsory job losses wherever possible.
"With this in mind, we announced a general recruitment freeze across the council at a meeting of directors and heads of service."
One member of staff, who did not wish to be named, said: "There's a pretty high turnover of staff so people will be leaving, but they won't be replaced.
"People are struggling to cope covering for colleagues who have already gone and doing far more than they are able. This isn't a straw that will break the camel's back. It's a brick."
Mr Keeling told the Mercury the council was looking to its spending on recruitment advertising, which stood at £216,000 last year.
He said : "On an average year, we seek to recruit between 1,000 and 1,200 people and put a significant quantity to external advertising.
"Now we are facing unprecedented times. Our focus will be retraining staff and we hope to minimise compulsory redundancies.
"Part of this is about recycling good existing staff.''