Washington, D.C.—The U.S. Postal Service, struggling to rein in its financial losses, is having a difficult time shedding operational expenses it no longer needs to carry, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
According to the GAO report, the USPS has 461 processing centers but only needs 238, given the overall drop in mail volume as businesses and consumers increasingly switch to electronic forms of communication. There are about 8,000 processing machines but with mail capacity for only 5,000; and, out of 154,000 postal employees, there is work for just 119,000, according to the report.
The USPS has saved $2.4 billion since in 2006 it undertook to cut overhead, but last month reported a loss of $1.1 billion for February, the fifth month of its fiscal year, raising its year-to-date losses to $5.6 billion.
