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Job Market
Mail call: Holidays are busy days for Postal Service

By Sarah Anne Wright
Seattle Times staff reporter

	CHAD COLEMAN / FOR THE SEATTLE TIMES Temporary cubicles were set up for the hiring process in a South Seattle Postal Service warehouse. About 600 people applied for 500 seasonal jobs.
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Housewives. Teachers. Taxi drivers. Students. The formerly unemployed.

Like a legion of elves who work feverishly in anticipation of the holidays, these are some of the workers who help process the traditional holiday crush at the post office.

Informally known as "Christmas casuals" or "holiday casuals," temporary postal employees work in federal mailrooms and processing plants across the country during the Thanksgiving-to-Christmas stretch, when average mail volumes increase by a third, up some 50 million pieces a day.

This year, the U.S. Postal Service will process roughly the same amount of mail, but has hired only 10,000 temporary workers — half the number hired last year.

Postal info What: Postal Service jobs. Demand: Not strong. Pay: Varies by job and location, from about $19,000 to $44,000 a year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; and about $11 an hour for seasonal, temporary help. Workers: 750,000 nationwide, but down some 70,000 since 1999. Tests: Postal exam (for permanent jobs), drug screening, identification and criminal background check, 10-year employment history, five years of residential history. To apply: Visit a local post office or visit uspsapps.hr-services.org.

In the Seattle area, only 500 casual workers were hired, compared with about 800 in previous years.

And the job openings weren't even advertised the past two years because of the region's high unemployment rate.

"Hiring is easier this year because people need jobs," said Linda Bilden, who heads up the holiday hiring for the Seattle District of the Postal Service.

The slim staffing of holiday hires speaks to a new trend at the nation's Postal Service: Once almost a guarantor of lifetime employment, the federal agency simply doesn't need as many workers as it once did, during the holidays or year-round.

The rise of the Internet is one big reason. More people are corresponding by e-mail and paying their bills online.

Automation plays a bigger role, too. In 1997, only 2 percent of hand-addressed notes were processed by machines.

Today, 70 percent of such mail is processed through improved automation.

Competition from private companies, such as FedEx and UPS, also has cut into the Postal Service market share. And there is the matter of those federal cuts.

"If a young person asked me what I thought about going into the Postal Service, I would tell them, sure, go for it, but it's not as secure as it once was," said Ernie Swanson, Seattle Postal Service spokesman. "Like many places, we are not hiring much."

CHAD COLEMAN / FOR THE SEATTLE TIMES Veronica Pugh, 27, of Seattle fills out an application for temporary Postal Service employment.

About the only current postal openings in Washington are for part-time work, filling in for rural mail carriers when they are out.

So that's why about 600 people showed up in early November at a Postal Service storage facility in Seattle's South Park neighborhood to apply for about 500 holiday jobs, paying about $11 an hour.

Processing was held over a three-week period, during which applicants were interviewed in makeshift cubicles and then proceeded to a room in the back of the building where two nurses ran a urinalysis station.

In addition to the drug screening, applicants had to undergo a criminal background check, complete a 10-year employment history, provide a residential history for the past five years and provide proof that they are eligible to work in the United States.

Getting a government job, even a temporary one, required applicants to complete about 35 pages of paperwork.

Physically, the holiday applicants needed to be able to handle some of the heavy tasks of the postal backroom, such as hoisting 70-pound mailbags or pushing 250-pound carts.

Most of the holiday workers were assigned to the Seattle Processing and Distribution Center in Tukwila.

Some applicants who had hoped to work in their neighborhood post office declined the holiday work, explaining that it was too far to travel.

Others were looking forward to the work, even if it didn't lead to a permanent job.

"These people are hired with the understanding that they are only going to be there temporarily," said Peter Hass, a regional Postal Service spokesman.

"It's a good way to find out if it's something you would like to pursue in the future."

Sarah Anne Wright: 206-464-2752 or swright@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company