Bryan YurcanOctober 24, 2008   

Amid declining mail volumes and a slow economy, the US Postal Service is eliminating between 220 and 250 jobs at its headquarters.

The positions cut are in the agency's Washington, DC, headquarters and “headquarters-related units” such as an engineering center in Virginia, an address management center in Memphis, and various data processing centers, said USPS spokesman Greg Frey. The cuts represent about 15% of the headquarters' work force.

According to an internal message, some already vacant positions have been eliminated, while other occupied positions are being eliminated.

Frey said employees who currently occupied positions that were eliminated are still working, “doing generally the same work they were doing all along.”

The USPS hopes to reassign those employees in the next few months to positions that will become vacant either by workers already planning to retire, or those who accept the Postal Service's voluntary early retirement option. “It's our every hope that we can minimize the number of impacted employees that may be terminated,” he said.

Starting next week, those employees whose positions were eliminated can begin applying for certain vacant positions.

Frey said employees would be placed in vacant positions that are similar to their previous ones.

The whole process “will take a few months,” he said.