After months of speculation surrounding a large-scale consolidation study, the US Postal Service announced today it will accept the bulk of its recommendations. The result: Up to 35,000 jobs lost as the USPS downsizes.
The study considered the possibility of consolidating 264 of the Postal Service’s 461 processing centers. Today, Emily Stephenson at Reuters reports, the USPS confirmed it will “close or consolidate 223 mail processing centers:”
“Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has said the agency needs to reduce $20 billion in annual costs by 2015. Moving processing away from the 223 centers would reduce operating costs by $2.6 billion annually, according to the Postal Service’s website.
That includes eliminating as many as 30,000 full-time jobs and 5,000 non-career positions, USPS spokesman Sue Brennan said. The agency has gotten rid of about 140,000 jobs in the last five years, mainly through attrition, but still had about 650,000 workers at the end of 2011, according to its first-quarter financial statement.”
The two New Hampshire centers on the list, in Manchester and Nashua, were among 35 the study rejected for consolidation. Six more facilities were marked for further study, including Brockton in Massachusetts.
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