Post offices reportedly slashing hours as cost-saving measure

The United States Postal Service is reportedly slashing hours at numerous branches across the country, part of a slate of cost-cutting measures the long-standing agency has enacted of late to help shore up its historically precarious finances. 

Branches have allegedly instituted the changes "with little or no communication," one postal worker told Vice this week. That employee claimed that, in one region of West Virginia, "Twenty-six offices are being forced to reduce hours from the typical eight-hour weekday schedule to under four hours per day."

In one part of New Jersey, 10 offices "are dropping from nine open hours per weekday to four, while another 30 are slated to close during lunch hours."

Some parts of the country have reported delays in mail delivery in recent weeks and months. The postal service has lately told media that it is "developing a business plan" to stay "financially stable" as a "vital part of the nation's critical  infrastructure."

"While the overall plan is not yet finalized," the statement continues, "it will certainly include new and creative ways for us to fulfill our mission, and we will focus immediately on efficiency and items that we can control, including adherence to the effective operating plans that we have developed."

The USPS, which exists as an independent agency of the federal government, last year claimed just under 500,000 employees on its rolls.