Patrick Donahoe

Elise Hacking Carr is senior production editor for Print & Promo Marketing magazine, and managing editor for PRINTING United Journal.

The U.S. Postal Service will reduce its workforce by 10,000 employees in 2015, the postmaster general said last week.

USPS will not offer early retirement or buyout incentives, Patrick Donahoe said at the National Postal Forum, instead relying exclusively on not filling positions after employees separate from the agency. The Postal Service's workforce currently stands at about 480,000 workers, down from 700,000 several years ago.

In the past, USPS has used a mix of attrition and incentivized separation to reduce its workforce. More than 26,000 employees accepted a $15,000 buyout from the Postal Service the last time it was offered.

The controversy surrounding the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and its financial troubles has done little to instill confidence in clients. The organization recently ended the first quarter of its 2014 fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2013 to Dec. 31, 2013) with a net loss of $354 million, marking 19 consecutive quarters in the hole.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said Thursday his agency is in "the midst of a financial disaster" and may need an emergency increase in postage rates to keep operating.

"The Postal Service as it exists today is financially unsustainable," he told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. It's a message that the postmaster general has been delivering to Congress with regularity over the past several months.

Donahoe pressed lawmakers Thursday for swift action on legislation to fix his agency's finances. The post office expects to lose $6 billion this year. Last year the agency lost $16 billion.

More Blogs