US Postal Service Plans to Cut 10,000 Jobs: What to Know

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy plans to cut 10,000 jobs and slash billions from the U.S. Postal Service budget, working in coordination with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, according to a letter sent to Congress on Thursday.

DOGE will assist the USPS in tackling "big problems" at the $78 billion-a-year agency, which has struggled financially in recent years. The agreement also includes the General Services Administration (GSA) to help identify and implement "further efficiencies."

Why It Matters​

The USPS, which employs approximately 640,000 workers, posted a $9.5 billion loss in the fiscal year ending September 2024. This latest effort is part of a broader attempt to curb costs as the agency grapples with calls for privatization and potential restructuring under President Donald Trump's administration.

The planned staff reductions will occur through a voluntary early retirement program, first announced in January, which has now expanded to specify the number of employees expected to leave.

DOGE head Elon Musk, during a virtual appearance at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference: "I think logically we should privatize anything that can reasonably be privatized. I think we should privatize the Post Office and Amtrak, for example...We should privatize everything we possibly can."

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US Postal Service plans to cut 10,000 jobs: What to know

DOGE will assist in tackling "big problems" at the $78 billion-a-year agency, which has struggled financially in recent years.

www.newsweek.com

 

[Ghoti Ichthus]

Oh but he did sort mail in the morning at the office. You are talking about the days of the old green relay boxes. Yes the carrier sorted and bagged the mail and it was then delivered to the green relay boxes where the carrier then snatched it for delivery. Also the out going mail was left in the green boxes and was picked up with undeliverable mail and brought to the office where clerks sorted out the out going with the route undeliverable mail. Out going was then set for the trucks to come pick it up and the bagged mail that needed to be reworked, forwarded, cancelled, etc was placed in the case. In some larger cities carriers did not even have a vehicle. They rode public transportation. This is why when I was riding a bus to work for a while I rarely paid fare for the ride because of the tradition any one in a letter carrier uniform rode for free. So yeah you are talking long ways back and there was delivery twice a day. But as things changed in the 1970s and some what ealier in some places it was dropped to once a day only. These days some days some people don't get their mail at all some days if the office is to short handed or filled with very slow new people. We had for a time people out delivering mail till as late as 10 pm. But because of the number of carriers that have been attacked in some areas they don't want them out past 7 pm and so they just cut off delivery and it is brought back. The next morning a susb is sent out to finish what was not delivered the day before. I was not there for the days of the Cushman trikes but I did start out on the Jeeps and all of our delivery vehicles are right side drive. Some collection vehicles are use for delivery at time but that is mostly for walking routes where it does not matter what side you drive on. I have delivered out of a 2 ton but it was all walking swings on my route. After that I ran collections for the rest of the day.

Where I was, the older mail men that were close to retirement and some others that might be hurt, etc. and the clerks did the sorting before everyone came in. It was a huge deal when the mail men had to start sorting. IIRC, that might have been some of the impetus for going to only one delivery a day

That might have been a local thing that the Post Office did, too. Winters in Minnesota were hard on the mail men. They either trudged through snow, or risked a fall on shoveled walks and driveways that might still have some ice. Then, people (or their kids) just shoveled and called it good, or hired a neighborhood kid Pretty much no one wasted money on salt in the residential areas, although a few used sand to provide some traction, especially on steps and right outside the door. Once a neighborhood kid consistently did a really good job, he or she had that neighbor as a customer for a looooooooooooooooooooooooooong time

 

[Andiamo]

Have been selling vintage items online since 2021 and have shipped around 1000 packages. Over 99% of them via USPS.

Never a lost package. Never an overly late package that wasn’t the result of a very bad weather system, which clogged up a hub. Most normal rate packages delivered within 3-6 days anywhere in the continental US from where we live in Florida. Just a couple of packages misdelivered, and those involved sprawling condo complexes where the carrier mixed up the buildings. Never a damaged package and never even a stolen package.

In my experience the USPS has done a fine job. I dread these changes. There is no way something can get built up quickly enough, with the same continuity of service throughout the country that the USPS has. No way.

My packages have traveled by plane, train, truck and barge. Moved from one hub to another when a hub was overwhelmed due to weather. Scanned at every point along the way by high tech address-reading machines. How on earth would a brand new business replace what decades and decades of growth has accomplished in the USPS?

We tend to take this massive organization - and the efficiency that they have developed - totally for granted. We get annoyed when our local carrier ruins a package by shoving it in our mailbox, or misdelivers something, or any number of infractions. But we forget about the ginormous amount of coordination, technology and government-owned infrastructure it takes to get that piece of mail to our mailbox in the first place.

Privatizing this will absolutely be an utter disaster.

 

[Shinobi]

Have been selling vintage items online since 2021 and have shipped around 1000 packages. Over 99% of them via USPS.

Never a lost package. Never an overly late package that wasn’t the result of a very bad weather system, which clogged up a hub. Most normal rate packages delivered within 3-6 days anywhere in the continental US from where we live in Florida. Just a couple of packages misdelivered, and those involved sprawling condo complexes where the carrier mixed up the buildings. Never a damaged package and never even a stolen package.

In my experience the USPS has done a fine job. I dread these changes. There is no way something can get built up quickly enough, with the same continuity of service throughout the country that the USPS has. No way.

My packages have traveled by plane, train, truck and barge. Moved from one hub to another when a hub was overwhelmed due to weather. Scanned at every point along the way by high tech address-reading machines. How on earth would a brand new business replace what decades and decades of growth has accomplished in the USPS?

We tend to take this massive organization - and the efficiency that they have developed - totally for granted. We get annoyed when our local carrier ruins a package by shoving it in our mailbox, or misdelivers something, or any number of infractions. But we forget about the ginormous amount of coordination, technology and government-owned infrastructure it takes to get that piece of mail to our mailbox in the first place.

Privatizing this will absolutely be an utter disaster.

Actually you make a good point. While the Clerk at the customer counter or the letter carrier are the face of the Post Office and get hit with most of the complaints, the real problems when they arise are from behind the scenes in places like transportation, sort facilities and a lot of bickering between management at different levels. It is a huge organization and frankly between 24 years with the PO and 17 years with the military, the PO is better organized by far. But problems exist and will continue to because humans are humans and sometimes make mistakes or do stupid things. Overall world wide the US still has the best postal service for the cheapest price. So losing 10K mail handlers is not going to make a dent in the overall system as to cause delays or other serious interference with delivery.

 

[Hol]

Overall world wide the US still has the best postal service for the cheapest price.

I think so too. Maybe the cuts will be enough to keep them afloat.

I’ve wondered how problematic junk mail has been? I guess it seems to add revenue, but most people hate junk mail. It’s possible that junk mail doesn’t really add enough revenue to cover the expense of extra processing, not to mention wear and tear on carriers. In residential areas there would not be a need to stop at each home if only first class mail was delivered.

 

[Ghoti Ichthus]

Or at least only stuff with the names. Some people do get packages, magazines, media mail, etc. Besides First Class.

 

[Shinobi]

I think so too. Maybe the cuts will be enough to keep them afloat.

I’ve wondered how problematic junk mail has been? I guess it seems to add revenue, but most people hate junk mail. It’s possible that junk mail doesn’t really add enough revenue to cover the expense of extra processing, not to mention wear and tear on carriers. In residential areas there would not be a need to stop at each home if only first class mail was delivered.

Junk mail in the last 10 years has dropped considerably. With the growth of internet sales it is now coming in the form of cyber junk mail. Still there is junk mail but usually from local business targeting people close by but by volume it is down by 90 -95% of what it was when I started in the late 1990s. When package deliveries jumped and many times junk mail did not make it in time because we could hold junk mail for days to get out the first class and packages businesses quit dumping money as little as it cost them because they were still losing out.