Fed Ex revenue: 35.5 billion that provides jobs for about 290,000
Post office: revenue of $74.9 billion that provide jobs for about 800,000 people
So they are able to operate at $93,625 a person vs Fed Ex costs of $122,413 per person. That is about a $30k savings per job. I am all for business profits, but it is very good example of the government running a program that helps the country run. We can now step aside and let private companies run, but if we do that the cost of stamps would increase by approx 30% (54 cents) .
And the post office is getting outdated due to the internet. We should be able to cut them soon when we can figure out how to get those folks trained into new careers. But tossing something in NY for 42 cents and having it show up in 2 to three days at someone elses home is amazing.
Way to pull numbers out of thin air.
http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3766417
Next step for USPS: Layoffs?
By ELISE CASTELLI
October 11, 2008
Will there be layoffs at the U.S. Postal Service? That’s the buzz among the agency’s 670,000 workers as signs grow that the agency is sliding further into financial trouble.
The Postal Service has already extended early-retirement offers to more than 156,000 postal workers — roughly 20 percent of its work force. And the postmaster general, John Potter, told the largest postal union that the agency has identified as many as 16,000 employees who can be laid off without the need for collective bargaining because they lack seniority.
Last month, nearly 3,700 employees had accepted early retirement offers in the first of three rounds of early-retirement offers.
That represents about 5 percent of the 72,000 mail handlers, clerks, distributions operations supervisors and customer service supervisors who were eligible in the first round that expired Sept. 30. Most experts consider that a good response rate.
But some observers fear the next two rounds of early-retirement offers will not produce similarly good response rates. That’s because the economy is worsening and the offers do not come with financial incentives. In short, it’s a scary time to leave a job.
“It makes little sense to leave a good paying job with benefits to enter the troubled economy unless there is incentive to do so,” said William Burrus, president of the American Postal Workers Union. “Their target is 6 percent and I don’t suspect they will meet that [going forward].”
And that, say experts like Burrus and others, means increased pressure on the Postal Service to consider layoffs for the first time in its history.
Burrus has advised his employees not to take the early out because the Postal Service is not offering an incentive to retire early. He suspects that when the process is complete, less than 3 percent of those offered will take the deal.
For its part, the Postal Service says layoffs will be a last resort as it seeks to trim payroll and cut expenses amid plunging revenues.
The second round of early-retirement offers, which expires Nov. 21, targets 67,000 letter carriers, headquarters staff and motor vehicle and maintenance employees. The third and final round, which expires Jan. 16, is available to 17,000 field management employees and postmasters.
Officials anticipate that between 3 percent and 5 percent of the eligible population will apply for the early outs, said Greg Frey, a Postal Service spokesman.
The early-retirement offers come at a time when the Postal Service is not covering its costs. Mail volume dropped 12 percent in fiscal 2008, causing the Postal Service to spend $2.3 billion more than it made during the year.
“We’re trying to match our work force to what the workload is,” Frey said.
If the Postal Service can’t increase mail volume, it won’t have enough money to pay staff, said postal expert Murray Comarow, who led the commission that was responsible for restructuring the Postal Service in 1971.
“Unless they tell Congress they don’t have the money to pay these guys, they will have to lay people off,” Comarow said. Congress has denied the Postal Service the ability to raise postage rates to cover costs. “I don’t know what else they could do except trying to change various constraints in the law that are more limiting of USPS management than any other company in the private sector,” he said.
Postal workers worry the deepening financial crisis could exacerbate the agency’s problems, which were brought on by rising energy costs, rising paper costs, and a heavier public reliance on the Internet to pay bills and communicate.
A Congressional Research Service report released last week found that Standard Mail — which includes advertising — now accounts for more mail volume than first-class mail. But the lower-cost Standard Mail yields lower revenues; it’s also more vulnerable to downturns in the economy. Some of the largest mailers, like the financial and housing industries, are suffering the most in the ailing economy.
The situation concerns newer Postal Service employees like Wendy Hess, an address management systems specialist in Cincinnati, because she has not been on the job long enough to be protected from layoffs.
With employees unable to afford to retire, “it seems as though layoffs are inevitable,” Hess said. If it comes to that point, Hess said she hopes it will be done strategically so the Postal Service doesn’t experience a brain drain.
“The financial dire straits which are and will continue to affect us necessitate the utilization of all forward-thinking employees, not their dismissal,” she said. Postal workers may find they’re on the front lines battling mail fraud and other crimes that might occur in tough times, she said.
Another postal worker, who asked not to be named said, “If the Postal Service really wants to downsize its work force, then it really needs to consider offering an incentive to retire early.” Without an incentive, most offered early retirement can’t afford to take it in these tough financial times, she said.
Other unions and the Postal Service say workers should not worry about layoffs.
Frey, the Postal Service spokesman, said there are several other measures management would pursue before taking action against career employees. In addition to the early outs, this includes decreasing the hours for part-time career employees and letting go temporary workers, who are not career employees, Frey said.
“There are not going to be any layoffs in the Postal Service,” said William Young, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers. “I’m not concerned about that, and I don’t want my members to get concerned about that.”
However, APWU’s Burrus is skeptical that reducing part-time workers’ hours is a solution. The service has already reduced work by 38 million work hours and still can’t fund itself, he said.
“I don’t want employees to be laid off, but I don’t think they’ll have much choice,” Burrus said.
One solution could be altering the discounts offered to bulk mailers, which are so low they don’t cover the cost of handling the mail, Burrus said.
Gregg Carlstrom contributed to this report. 
