U.S. Postal Service Workforce Size and Employment Categories, 1987-2007

U.S. Postal Service Workforce Size and Employment Categories, 1987-2007
May 9, 2008

Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report :This report provides data from the past two decades on the size of the U.S. Postal Service's (USPS's) workforce, the number of persons employed by USPS by employment categories, and the number of persons employed by USPS under time limited contracts. It also analyzes the most salient aspects of these employment data. USPS employs nearly 786,000 persons. Although USPS's workforce size has changed relatively little from 20 years ago, it has dropped 12% in the past decade. The number of career employees declined 8.8% since 1987; however, the number of non-career employees increased 106.5%. Clerks, who staff retail counters at post offices and manually sort mail, dropped more than 31% since 1987. Rural mail delivery carriers, in contrast, grew 84.9%; and building and equipment maintenance personnel and vehicle maintenance personnel grew 28.7% and 14.9%, respectively. This report will be updated at the beginning of each new Congress.

Workforce Size. The size of USPS’s workforce changed relatively little during the past two decades, decreasing from 799,800 employees in 1987 to 785,929 employees in 2007 . Figures from just the beginning and ending dates, however, mask a rise in career employees in the first decade and a decline in career employees in the second decade. Since 1997, the total workforce has decreased by 12%. Clerks, for example, fell from 280,818 in 1997 to 204,145 (27.3%) in 2007.

Career Employees vs. Non-career Employees. The number of career employees decreased by 8.8% between 1987 and 2007, from 750,808 to 684,762, while non-career USPS employees increased by 106.5%, from 48,992 to 101,167 . Although 10 of the 18 career employee categories had fewer employees in 2007 than in 1987 (e.g., the number of postmasters/installation heads declined by 8.8%),4 all five of the non-career employment categories had more employees than in 1987. Despite the decline in career employees, they constituted the vast majority of USPS’s workforce during the past two decades . The percentage of USPS’s workforce consisting of career employees declined from 93.9% to 85.7% between 1987 and 1997, but increased to 88.1% in 2002. The percentage declined again in 2007 to 87.1%.

Employment Categories. While the size of each employment category shifted over the past 20 years, three trends are marked. First, “rural” employment categories grew significantly. Full-time rural delivery carriers rose from 36,551 to 67,584 (84.9%), and rural substitute carriers/rural carrier associates/rural carrier relief carriers/auxiliary carriers (rural subs/RCA/RCR/AUX) increased from 29,831 to 60,444 (102.6%). In contrast, the number of city delivery carriers rose 1.7% between 1987 and 2002 (229,706 and 233,639 respectively), but it has dropped 4.9% since 2002 to 222,132.

Second, three categories of USPS employees involved in the transportation of mail prior to its delivery have grown between 14.9% and 24.1% since 1987. Mail handlers rose 18.4%, from 48,879 to 57,882; and motor vehicle operators increased 24.1%, from 7,031 to 8,726. Vehicle maintenance personnel, who play a supporting role in mail transportation, increased 14.9%, from 4,705 to 5,405.

Third, clerks, who staff the retail counters at post offices and manually sort mail, decreased 31.1% in the past two decades, from 296,360 to 204,145.5

Full report (PDF)

note: The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is the public policy research arm of the United States Congress. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS works exclusively and directly for Members of Congress, their Committees and staff on a confidential, nonpartisan basis