Government Executive reports on the increasingly dire picture for the U.S. Postal Service:
The Postal Service lost $2.8 billion last year and is facing even larger losses this year, despite a rate increase – to 44 cents for first-class mail – scheduled to take effect May 11. The service said Friday it will offer early retirement to 150,000 workers across the country. In addition the agency said it will eliminate 1,400 management jobs and close six of its 80 district offices.
Postmaster General John Potter has even asked Congress to consider allowing the agency to cut mail delivery back to five days a week to save money. “We are in uncharted waters,” Potter told a Senate subcommittee in January. “But we do know that mail volume and revenue – and with them the health of the mail system – are dependent on the length and depth of the current economic recession.”