Almost half of the U.S. Postal Service's employees are over 50, a far higher number than that of any Fortune 500 company.
The Postal Service's proportion of over-50 employees is 10 percentage points higher than any Fortune 500 company and nearly double the average, according to a recent study.
In USPS Workforce Has More Gray Hairs Than the Fortune 500, I contrasted the study's results to some Postal Service numbers without being aware that USPS publishes exact data on the age of its workforce. (Thanks to Brian Sheehan of Postalnews.com for pointing out that page 4 of the "HAT" report has the numbers.)
The report shows that more than 49% of USPS employees are over 50. Fifty-something postal workers outnumber the 40-and-under crowd by more than 2 to 1. More than 1 in 10 Postal Service employees is over 60.
Some have questioned whether yesterday's article was an attack on the Postal Service or its employees. Nope. I'm just presenting facts that are crucial to understanding the U.S. Postal Service and that have significant implications for such matters as its future retirement rates and health-insurance costs.
38 comments:
Being a letter carrier is not hard work, like construction or cement workers, so I can see people staying longer. Personally I spent 20 years in the military and then found employement with the post office. I was over 40 on day one.
Now if they can do something about the stress level...
constuction and cement workers dont work in bad weather,genius.....dont tell me walking for 8hrs with a bag on your back isnt hard work
I'll be joining the over 50 club next month with 29 years of service. I agree something needs to be done about the stress level Postal employees have to endure.
I am almost 52. Carrier, With 28yrs service. My knees are real bad. They did not go bad all by themselves. A lot of hard winter's, hot, hot, days, and a lot of miles . I admit, in my younger days it was not so hard, now a little older, and a lot of year's of abuse, walking, up and down stairs, trying to stay upright on ice, etc, etc,. I sure hope there is some top brass that can appreciate a lot of us so called gray hairs. I am still doing the best I can. Mike the mailman
I bet the guy that said that letter carriers don't work hard sits on his ASS all day and looks out the window and says boy sure does not look bad out there when there is a foot of snow on the ground and has no respect for a hard worker must be management
military for 20 years you must have been a cook where did you carry mail couldn't have been where it snows guys like you make me sick.
I am 56 and will be retiring in Nov., I have had 3 foot surgeries, 4 surgeries on the varicose veins in my legs not to mention the the stress of being micro-managed for the last 15 years. Walk a mile in a letter carriers shoes before passing judgement.
Construction and cement workers get plenty of time to stand around and plenty of breaks. It is not repetitive, monotonous, and constant. Carrying mail for decades wreaks havoc on the body, and when someone gets injured, they show you the door. The mental stress is another huge story that no reporter will take on. Recent and upcoming changes that do not benefit the craft employees will add to the stress level, while the top execs still maintain their hefty salaries. Trouble brewing, if you catch my drift.
Of course it's an attack. Why are we being compared to Fortune 500 Companies? This is an ongoing effort to lump us with private businesses. Why isn't the comparison to another Government Organization... like Congressmen?
The turnover is low at the Postal Service. Maybe they should compare the statistics of length of service within one company. It is not a fair comparision to compare the manual labor of the USPS to a Fortune 500 worker. Fortune 500 are usually young and fresh out of college. Those employees do not remain with one employer their entire career. They are two totally different work scenarios. You could compare statistics of two companies doing similar work but the USPS is its own unique entity.
1 - The author said Postal Service employees, not specifically letter carriers. Ever go into in Post Office with three window clerks and a line out the door and see two of them close down? I have - almost every time I've gone into a Post Office.
2 - Hey genius, letter carriers don't carry mail for eight hours a day. They spend half their time casing it. Ever get a mail delivery before noon? I never have.
3 - Stress? You guys make me laugh. You don't know what stress is. No letter carrier has ever worked until midnight to put together something his boss said he needed at 9am the next morning.
you must not be a letter carrier. they start us at 6:30-7:am, case for 1 to 1-1/2 and hit the street.do the math genius. minus 1/2hr lunch that equals 8 hrs street time pal.you are a perfect example of a little bit of knowledge being a dangerous thing. do your homework before you open your mouth.
My stress is better than your stress....sounds like a song...get a life!!
The reason why postal employees stay is that the pay is twice what it would be in the private sector for the same work, the jobs (ever hear of a postal worker being laid off?) and the raises are guaranteed, and the work ain't that bad.
Hey genius, if the work is so bad, why didn't you just quit and get another job? Oh, because you couldn't find one that paid close to what you make in pay and bennies with your c minus high school diploma.
But there will be layoffs soon - mail volume is disappearing into thin air as the USPS prices it out of reasonability.
Too much letter carrier bashing. I want to publicly thank the carriers for delivering my mail. I can only remember two times in the past 20+ years that I did not get my mail. Both were days that we experienced horrendous Minnesota blizzards. I could not get to work on those days either. And by the way, thanks for getting me my mail yesterday in the 103 deg. heat also!!! (I'm not a carrier, and I've never been employed by the USPS.)
i have been employed by the USPS
for 23 years and will retire this
month i am disappointed to see
what has happened to this organization. there are simply
too many competing factions to
effectively run the PO. there is
Hdqtrs,PRC,BOGS,CONG,mass mailing
industry,lobbyists,unions. and my
last VOE survey ? I used it for
Poo Poo paper in the bottom of the
bird cage
I just retired from the U.S.P.S. after 27 yrs my age is past 60. I want to say a coment to the one's that say being a letter carrier isn't hard work is nuts. I carried mail from day 1 and had to retire cause of stress not because of the numerous aches and pains I had endured.You ought to try carrying mail with the temps are in the 90's and the heat index is 110 or higher. It's one thing to be in an office and work past midnight it's another to be outside in all kinds of weather and conditions and carry mail and to the one who never gets his mail before noon maybe your home is closer to the end of the route than the beginning.
Let me give you an example of my day as a clerk. I leave my home at 4:15 am each morning for my hour and a half commute. I work from six until nine and then have a two hour lunch. I return to have seven hours of work left, standing on a hard concrete floor. No one is around to give me break in those seven hours. I am left to all my duties as well as fielding questions and complaints from carriers and customers who need a supervisor. My day ends when I arrive home between 7:30 and 8:00pm. - have 6 hrs before I get up and do it again. I never see my family and I miss out on a lot of the kids functions. Due to downsizing there are no transfers available and my kids are happy in their respective schools. How I would love a simple 40 hour week. Torn between financial stability and time with my kids..stress from every angle. Many people who take the time to listen to a postal employees life say "I never knew it was messed working for the post office."
If the USPS can afford to pay Postmaster General Potter 5m in bonus money with his pension to leave then they can afford and offer the bargaining employers another buyout too. Now Potter is a CEO somewhere else collecting another pension and I bet he does not have a college education either. Go figure
No his 20 years in the military was as the PLO..Guess he's trying to double dip..
I wish people would just be content at where they are employed. I have been a Postal Carrier for 20 years. I am 46 years old and already had a knee replacement and a cage put in my back. I continue to carry my entire non-mounted route each day because I like my job. For the most part, people are very appreciative and respectful of me and my duties. It seems that the people who continue to berate us and the work we do are insanely jealous and unhappy with their own carrier. Remember...you chose which career path to go down and it's not our fault you are there!
I am a rural carrier and have been for 24 years.I am so thankful for my job. I hate to think of something happening to the Postal Service. If the Postal Service would just ask any of the employees to take a pay cut to save jobs, I bet alot of us would. But yet they find other ways to "take" it from us. Offer those of us close to retirement a "good" early out deal. Let the ones waiting to go full time our jobs if we chose to go. Then maybe there wouldn't be any layoffs. Also all higher ups need to take a cut in pay including the Postmaster General.
They recently feted a carrier locally who had worked at USPS for 60 years starting at age 21. The retirement benefit under CSRS tops out at 40 years, yet he has stayed an additional 20 years holding a job a younger man could use to support a family. Most people stay until their health fails and they are mandated to go, then they complain bitterly about being forced out! Regular career folks make over $25/hr plus OT. Casuals do the same job for $10/hr which is closer to what it is worth since machines do the skilled activity these days of sorting mail for delivery.
THERE IS A REASON WHY THE TERM "GOING POSTAL" CAME ABOUT.
The stress alone from management is harrassment. Yes the job is not construction. Packages are heavy at times. The carrier may work in the bad weather. Cold, snow, blizzards, rain, hurricanes, tornados. Would you like to sit in a tin can in the hot sun? The temp can go over 100 degrees in those trucks. They put these good workers in 100% polyester uniforms that hold in the heat and are a total waste of the postal money. THis is a true waste of money. And who is the brain that ordered trucks with 6 cylinders to heat the worker up even more ? And what about the gas consumption of a 6 cylinder engine? Every job has it's good and bad points. Do not say postal work is not a hard job until you have done the job yourself and been harrassed by management. Look deeper before making comments.
It's amazing how much people outside of the USPS know about our jobs. I'm a carrier, so the public thinks I sit around the donut shop half the day before I go out to deliver the mail. I work only 1/2 a day on Saturdays (I guess they think I toss the other 1/2 of the route in a dumpster). I have mail in my garage, attic and basement. If I've worked for the USPS long enough, I'll be able to work inside as a clerk someday. How little do they know. I've had other jobs before I came to the USPS, and it's the hardest one I've had physically. 10-14 miles a day, 10 hrs a day in all kinds of weather. My present route has exactly 692 possible delivery points, about 620-640 active. I get extra territory when the Delivery Operations Information System (DOIS) computer program says I'm light for the day. For my minimum 8-hr day, it's 1-1/2 hrs casing time in the office, and 6-1/2 hrs street time, which includes a 30-minute lunch, and 2 10-minute breaks. That's 5 hrs and 40 minutes to cover AT LEAST 630 addresses on the average. I'm 57 years old with 28+ years of service. I had a rotator cuff operation on my right arm, and my left arm is getting worse. I'd retire tomorrow if they gave me another retirement offer. I work in a small office, and there were several new carriers over the years who quit because it wasn't as easy as they thought. Most people can't even pass our entrance test. There were over a THOUSAND PEOPLE who took the entrance test in 1982 when I sat for it in my county for a handful of jobs. I suppose ever since, those people who would never work for the USPS were the ones who bitched about the wages and benefits the most.
UPS drivers make more money than usps carriers do.I have 2 blown disks in my neck from this job.Talk about wear and tear on the body!
So what if someone is 50 and over and working and has a retirement plan. What a wonderful life they made for themselves, without being a top excutive. I though this was the country I lived in to be able to plan your life this way if you choose too! Maybe I'm wrong for thinking this way!
I have 42 years with USPS. The stress level over the years has caused Nerve damaged, foot problems, back problems and a divorce. I have missed 42 Christmas Holidays and 90% of my daughters childhood working the Graveyard shift. All I want now is a Buyout and I will gladly retire with happy one finger salute to the Post Office.
In 2010 I broke two ribs and bruised two more delivering mail at 7pm in dark icy/winter conditions. All because our office has 10 vacant routes and not enough carriers to do the work. The post office is also losing money because the sales representatives are telling potential business customers that they can't pick up after 5pm. Several local companies went to fed ex or ups because of this. One company pays $20,000 a week in shipping and was told by the people hired to bring the post office more business that we couldn't provide them with the service they needed. So the problem just isn't with "old" workers. The post office is turning away business. Hardly a fortune 500 company.
People really do not have a clue as to what we do,is right on the money. In the old days you could retire and pick up a part time job to make up for the 34% pay cut after 35 years service including military time (CSRS)SO who is going to hire anyone past 55 in this economy.That is why people stay they have no choice!
Because they can't afford to retire and buy food and medication too!
Workers should unite and not bash each other. Everyone should make what Postal workers do, it's called a living wage. In an advanced society like ours, we should be doing better and better in each succeeding generation. We are not. Don't buy into the anti-worker propaganda you hear every day! Support workers, don't tear them down!!!!!
I spent 22 years in the Army and joined the USPS at age 45. I started out collecting heavy business mail and lost 25 pounds in three months. As a PTF for four years I did plenty of walking routes and now have worked my way up to an apartment route with over 1500 deliveries. They bring me my Advo's on a pallet. I'll retire next year when I'm 64 unless I drop dead on the route.
I retired from the Army after 22 years. Worked odd jobs; the last one I had free meals. Joined the USPS at age 45. After 3 months I lost 25 pounds. Now I've been on an apartment route with over 1500 deliveries. I'll retire next year at 64 years old unless I drop dead on the street. Then I can start drawing Social Security with 2 retirement checks, 1/3 million in my TSP, 1/4 million in my Roth IRA, 1/4 million in the bank and debt free in my 1/2 million dollar home.
as a letter carrier i salute all postal workers who physically touch the mail....as for me i'm outta here, i didn't sign up for this crap in 1973.
The 'grass is always greener'. If you think carrying mail is easy, then carry it for a couple of years. As a young man, I had the 'easy' job of digging telegraph pole holes for Western Union. We dug these 8 to 10 foot holes manually with shovels and spoons through all kinds of soil and sometime rock. I quit that job other similar type jobs and joined the military (draft age).I spent 22 1/2 years in the military. As I neared military retirement, Uncle Sam reneged n his promise of free medical care for life. I went to work for the Postal Service as a City Letter Carrier for the Medical Insurance. I retired from the Postal Service in 2003 and I still have an occasional nightmare about the way we were abused by our supervisors. Don't tell me about how hard you work, or how long you work. City Letter Carriers deserve every penny they get! The work of digging those 8 - 10 post holes by hand was much easier than having to tolerate the abuse handed out almost daily by postal supervisors. By-the-way, I was a B student in high school and I also earned my BA from a well-respected 4 year college with a B average (3.2 point average). For the most part, Letter Carriers are not lazy nor stupid.
I have 27 years in post office, two hours standing bending etc... In office and 8 hours walking street with parcel, advo, penny saver on my back .. Now am looking at total knee replacement on both knee. So don't tell me mail carrier isn't a hard job...ass wipe!!
What I don't understand is why people feel they need a buyout to retire. If you are eligible to go, go. Take responsibility for your own actions. If your body says its time to go, go. Retire. My office has an aging workforce. A carrier in my office is out right now that has 35 years of service. I bet he won't retire until every hour of his sick leave is gone. And we all have to carry the load while he is off. All the carriers with their worn out backs, knees and hips need to go to your union and get them to SUPPORT changing the delivery modes and get the mailboxes off the porches so we can QUIT walking 10-20 miles per day. Go to mounted delivery-CBU's, whatever it takes. The union won't support that because it might lose money in dues because yes, they won't have as many members because routes will be eliminated. Who's the union looking out for? The carriers that carry mail for 10-15-20 years and live with pain the rest of their life? I don't think so.
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