Among career employees, it said, overall there was a surplus of 1.3 percent in processing clerks and 0.6 percent in city carriers, and shortages among building and equipment maintenance, mail handlers and rural carriers of 2.9, 2.6 and 0.6 percent. Image: Kristi Blokhin/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe Postal Service has slight shortages of employees in some occupations but slight overages in others, and there is similar variation by region, an inspector general report has said.
“The Postal Service must compete for talent with government and the private sector alike, and there is evidence that the agency does not always have enough employees onboard to achieve its mission. Recent OIG audits and reports from local media outlets highlighted how staffing shortages at some postal facilities hurt service performance, contributing to mail delays,” it says.
The report focused on employment in the five craft occupations—city carriers, rural carriers, mail handlers, clerks, and building and equipment maintenance—which account for nine-tenths of Postal Service employees. “Despite the tight labor market, the OIG found that no craft had a substantial shortage or surplus of career employees on average in FY 2023,” it said.
Among career employees, it said, overall there was a surplus of 1.3 percent in processing clerks and 0.6 percent in city carriers, and shortages among building and equipment maintenance, mail handlers and rural carriers of 2.9, 2.6 and 0.6 percent.
Of the crafts, all but building and equipment maintenance have pre-career employees and in most cases the number was below the authorized level, although that level is a cap, not a target, it said. The exception was a combined 3.3 percent surplus in career and pre-career retail and customer service clerks.
“In addition to a competitive job market, staffing shortages can be caused by a slow hiring process and an inability to retain employees, two areas where the Postal Service has encountered challenges,” the report said, while adding that the USPS has made improvements in that area recently.
“In every craft, some districts or divisions had substantially larger shortages or surpluses than the Postal Service as a whole. Additionally, even when the Postal Service had a surplus or shortage in a craft, some districts and divisions bucked the trend,” it added.
It said that “unlike many private sector organizations and the rest of the federal government, Postal Service employees’ base rate of pay does not adjust according to their locality, which means that the Postal Service does not adjust its employees’ pay based on local labor market conditions or the cost of living. This can make the agency a highly attractive employer in parts of the country where the labor market is weak and the cost of living is low, but pose challenges to recruiting and hiring in areas of the country where the local labor market is tight and the cost of living is high.”
The report did not take a position on whether pay should vary by locality, a long-running issue between postal management and unions.
The report meanwhile noted that the Postal Service has higher rates than the government-wide average of employees who are currently eligible to retire and those who will be eligible in one, five and 10 years.
It said overall employment rose from 629,000 in 2019 to 637,000 in 2023, although that is down from the peak of 650,000 in 2020. During that time, the USPS converted many positions that had been pre-career to career status.
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