U.S. Postal Service Searching for Ways to Cut Costs - KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather & Sports

By Jonathan McCall - bio | email

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - "We lost 2 billion dollars and like any other business we have to stay afloat." And to keep from sinking, the United States Postal Service is considering cuts.  Lavelle Pepper with the post office in Shreveport says they too are feeling the affects of the same disease hitting the country... a struggling economy.

The postal service is offering early retirement packages to workers over the age of 50 who have more than 20 years on the job. U.S.P.S officials released this statement to KSLA News 12 about the news. "Times are tough. Like most businesses in America, the Postal Service must respond to the difficult economy. The Postal Service receives no tax subsidy and when business slows, we must respond by looking for cost savings wherever we can. A number of steps are being taken but Monday's report on Postal workforce reductions was not correct. What we are doing is reducing our workforce by voluntary early retirements. Early retirement has been offered to 156,000 employees nationwide. We anticipate 3 to 5 percent of those employees to accept and apply for voluntary early retirement. We continue to look at all our operations to find ways to reduce costs while maintaining reliable, secure economical mailing services."

The postal service says we were given misinformation on our original story on October 27th...saying nationwide job cuts of 40,000 people is incorrect.