The USPS will have fewer retail, delivery, and processing employees for this year’s peak mailing season than it had during last year’s season, an IG report has said.
Planning for the peak season, it said, includes converting some 10,000 non-career processing employees to career status and backfilling vacancies; hiring an additional 28,000 temporary processing, retail and delivery employees; adding package sorting machines; and leasing space for 17 temporary mail processing and 71 temporary delivery annexes.
Even with the additional hiring, the report said, the USPS expects to have some142,000 processing employees, and 432,600 retail and delivery employees by year’s end, decreases of 7.6 and 2.6 percent from year-end 2021. Also, it said, as of the start of this month the service had secured leases for only eight temporary delivery annexes and nine temporary processing annexes.
“Despite this, management believes the Postal Service will be able to timely process, transport, and deliver the peak season volume because there are more experienced career employees this year, higher employee availability, increased package processing capacity, and an overall more stable workforce. Additionally, management does not expect package and mail volume to increase compared to last year,” it said.
Management also has stated that converting employees to full-time career status “has allowed them to better train employees, reduce delayed mail and overtime, improve retention, and, ultimately, improve overall service performance.”
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