Post Office Cuts 25,000 Jobs This Year

(AP)  The U.S. Postal Service has cut its staff by 25,000 this year as it struggles to reduce massive deficits, Postmaster General John Potter said Monday.

Postal employment is now below 635,000, Potter said, down from about 800,000 in 1999.

Thousands of carrier routes have also been eliminated as mail volume declines, he said.

"We have an infrastructure that, quite frankly, we cannot afford based on the income we're receiving," Potter said.

The agency still faces a potential $6.5 billion loss this year, Potter said, and even with increased borrowing and other changes it could finish the year with a $1.5 billion shortfall.

Postal rates went up last week by 2 cents to 44 cents for a first class stamp. That isn't expected to be enough to offset the likely losses. Regular increases are limited to the rate of inflation the year before and officials feared a larger, emergency increase would result in even more declines in mail volume.

The post office is seeking permission from Congress to reschedule some of its contributions to a retiree health care fund, which would reduce spending this year by $2 billion.

However, Potter stressed that the main problem is the weak economy and the post office is "anxiously awaiting a turnaround."

The post office was already working to cope with a decline in first-class mail as people turned to the Internet for personal communications as well as many financial transactions as the economic downtown caused advertisers to scale back, further cutting the mail stream.

The agency is expected to handle about 170 billion items this year, well below the peak of more than 210 billion, Potter said at a briefing at the Postal Forum, a convention for the mailing industry.

Potter has also suggested to Congress the possibility that it may be necessary to reduce mail delivery from six days a week to five. However, on Monday he sought to deflect attention from that possibility.

"People should take it for granted that they're going to get mail six days a week" until they hear otherwise, he said.

"They'll hear from us if we should ever change the frequency of delivery," Potter said.

More than 10,000 city carrier routes have been eliminated over the last several years as postal officials determined they could combine routes because of the reduction in mail volume and the increasing share that is sorted in advance by mailers.

Each route that is eliminated saves the agency about $100,000, and also may mean no longer needing a vehicle, Potter said. He said the post office is working with the workers unions on the changes, which also include a hiring freeze and an early retirement offer.

[cbsantispin]

Just as electronic media is hurting Newpapers, email is hurting the Postal Service. The obvious problem and enemy for the Postal Service is email.

[rrozsa]

The Post Office had always been in the black until republicans required it to pay up in advance through the year 2017 for "retiree health insurance" which busted its budget and sent it into the red in 2007.

Posted by rightaboutit at 2:19 AM : May 19, 2009

========================

If that is true, that's just one more example of why the Republican party has been struggling in recent years -- they have abandoned their platforms and have acted more and more like Democrats.. It's getting to the point where you can't tell one party from the other anymore. Big government and entitlements -- both parties are now equally guilty, not just the democrats anymore.

[HAIRYONETOOOO]

If the post office would stop making the consumer subsidize businesses junk mailing and charge business the same rate as the consumer they would not have a deficit and they would have much less volume of mail.

I have two P0 boxes and I get around 25 pieces of junk mail per week, however those permit senders are charged a total of $.08 per item, for a total of $2.00, I am a small business and send about 20 pieces of mail per week to my clients which costs me about $8.80. If big mailers had to pay what I pay they would stop mailing. The mail handlers handle about 10 pieces of junk mail for every 1 piece of legimate mail so they are spending 90% of the time handling mail that only generates about 10% of the revenue!!!

Is that good business? No it is stupdity, but the Post Office is susceptible to lobbyists and politicians who demand that we be covered up with junk mail. Why do you think the post offices keep large trash cans in the area near the po boxes, they know that 90% of the mail will be dumped there!!!!!!!!!!!

[budmag06]

"Post Office Cuts 25,000 Jobs" Think about it. Isn't the PO run by the same government that wants to run our health care and health records? What fools we are for thinking our government
can do a good job at running anything!

[trillion1]

If a lot of these people were management it may actually help.

[displeased]

"Post Office Cuts 25,000 Jobs This Year"

Maybe that's why every time I arrive to the post office the lines are going out the door.

[tbbaot]

They should cut even more. This government entity has been a bloated pig for years. Email and text messaging has replaced the letter as the communication method of choice. Private companies like Fedex and UPS have shown they can do a better job and at lower cost much of the time.

[formrusmcsgt]

The U.S. Postal Service has cut its staff by 25,000 this year as it struggles to reduce massive deficits, Postmaster General John Potter said Monday.
---
I remember when carriers would pull into a neighborhood, get the trike bag carrier out of their truck and push it through the whole neighborhood on foot delivering mail door to door.

Now they pull up to the first house, step out of their truck, deliver one house with the vehicle running of course, get back in their truck, pull ahead 30 feet and repeat the process.

The post office has gotten fat and lazy, and expensive as a result of same.

This approach

[budmag06]

25,000 postal jobs cut??? Who just said the recession is now over?? Oh, yeah! Tax Tim Geithner.

[hcrdriver]

I drive US mail to the post offices for a contractor. My beef is if they cut a day of delivery I know from 6 years expierience that our delivery trucks will be overloaded like anytime there is a holiday. The day after we are well overloaded beyond our gross weight most of the time 3-4 thousand pounds. It's really bad when the USPS doesn't follow the laws for weight distribution and do not care about causing injuries for the truck drivers that bring the mail to the post offices. I myself have been injured 3 times trying to unload overloaded mail containers from my truck there usually isn't anyone at the post offices to help unload. We have complaind to them but it doesn't do any good. Their comments are get a bigger truck so we can really pack it in.
Just my 2 cents worth so people can see what goes on behind the padded information.