Post office was $3.8 billion in the red last year

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The Postal Service reported a loss of $3.8 billion last year, despite a reduction of 40,000 full-time positions and other cost-cutting measures designed to save billions of dollars.

The loss was $1 billion more than the year before, postal officials said today.

“Our 2009 fiscal year proved to be one of the most challenging in the history of the Postal Service,” Chief Financial Officer Joseph Corbett said. “The deep economic recession, and to a lesser extent the ongoing migration of mail to electronic alternatives, significantly affected all mail products, creating a large imbalance between revenues and costs.’

The post office has been struggling to cope with a decline in mail volume caused by the shift to the Internet as well as the recession that resulted in a drop in advertising and other mail. Total mail volume was 177.1 billion pieces, compared with 202.7 billion pieces in 2008, a decline of almost 13%.

Postmaster General John Potter is seeking permission from Congress to reduce mail delivery from six days a week to five, a move that could save the agency $3.5 billion annually.

--Associated Press