In the News

Frustrated with mail delivery issues? The post office in recent months blamed low staffing levels, so what are they doing to change that?

News cameras are rarely allowed behind the counter, but the U.S. Postal Service needs help hiring right now, so they gave KOMO News a behind-the-scenes look at how they do things at their Lake City Post Office in Seattle.

This small station is getting the work done with nearly one-quarter fewer people than they need. Right now, they’ve got 20 employees to serve more than 7,200 addresses. They should have 26 on staff to get it all done.

So, why is the Postal Service so low on staffing right now?

“We had a situation. The whole country had a situation; Covid,” said Eden Ching, with Workforce Operations at the Postal Service in Washington.

She said many of their employees retired during the pandemic because they could not find childcare. Employees are fully vested after 6 years of service. All of those departures left a large void.

“Unlike some of the companies in the United States that are reducing their workforce. We are actively hiring aggressively hiring,” said Kim Frum, spokesperson for the Postal Service, covering Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.

Frum said they're looking to hire 1,000 people in the state of Washington and another 1,000 between the other three states in this region.

The short-staffing is so great that it’s what the Postal Service blamed for mail delivery problems.

So many customers complained about missing mail to Representatives Rick Larsen and Suzan DelBene that they demanded answers from Louis DeJoy.