February employment figures filed by the US Postal Service show career staffing levels are down 4.4% from a year ago. The decline of 29,960 was across the board, affecting all employee categories. The largest decline was in the clerk craft, down 6.7% for a loss of 13,405 jobs. The smaller mailhandler craft suffered a loss of 3,144 jobs, or 5.5%. There were 10,337 fewer career city carriers, a drop of 4.8%.

Job categories which had shown increases in earlier periods also showed declines in the current report, with Headquarters shedding 4.7% of its positions, or 135 jobs, and the Office of the Inspector General losing 12, or 1%. Non-career transitional carrier jobs were down by 222 positions, or 1.5%. Rural carriers showed the smallest decline, down 137 jobs or 0.2%.

US Postal Service employment statistics showed a continuing decline in the career workforce at the end of 2007. The USPS ended the year with 681,013 career employees, down 1.9% from the prior year. The decrease of 13,329 career jobs was more than made up for by 21,537 added casual workers, and 11,801 transitional employees.

By craft, clerks and nurses saw the largest decline, down 4.5%, for a loss of 9,515 jobs. City carriers were also down from the prior year, by 1.9%, or 4,367 employees. Rural carriers increased by 1.8%, and mail handlers were up 0.7%. Field supervisors and managers declined by 1.6%, or 533 jobs, while Headquarters added 103 positions, for an increase of 3.7%. Field support positions also increased, up 3.8%, or 276 additional career positions.

On Rolls and Paid Employee (ORPES) published this week show that USPS career employees numbered 696,138 at the end of the 2006 fiscal year, a drop of 8,578, or -1.2% from the prior year. The biggest decreases came in the APWU-represented clerk craft, down 7,725 employees, or 3.5%. City carrier numbers declined by 1.7%, a loss of 3,878 carriers. Mail handlers, the smallest of the crafts, increased by 1,130, or 2%. But the biggest increase came in the ranks of rural carriers. Full and part time rurals increased by 2,009, or 3.1%. Rural subs, who are not considered career employees, increased by 2.9%, or 1,676 employees.

Workforce flexibility also declined somewhat, as Part Time Flexible (PTF) numbers dropped by 5%, while Full Time complement was down less than a percent. This demonstrates the difficulty the service has in maintaining flexibility as staffing declines. The vast majority of the (net) 8,578 career employees the service lost were, no doubt, full time regulars. Yet full time numbers dropped by just four thousand. Why? Because a lot of the full time regulars that left had to be replaced- by promoting PTF’s. So a pretty good guess is that about 8,000 Full Time Regulars left the USPS, and that half of them were replaced by promoting PTF’s. The work of the remaining 4,000 either shifted to overtime, or was ‘absorbed’.

Headquarters added 107 employees for a 4% increase, and the Office of Inspector General added 228 for a 27% increase. Inspection Service staffing, on the other hand, decreased by 12.3%, or 437 employees.