US Post Office Needs to Cut 260,000 Jobs: Rep. Issa

01-24-2012 • www.cnbc.com

The U.S. Postal Service needs to slash 260,000 jobs and end weekend delivery if it is to climb out of its "financially insolvent" condition, Rep. Darrell Issa said.

Despite a mandate to avoid deficits, the post office loses up to $15 billion a year, Issa told CNBC during an informal gathering of senior House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members.

"It's a combination of delivering what people want at a price they're willing to pay," the California Republican said. "We've restricted what the post office can charge for various classes of mail. But the biggest challenge is there are about 660,000 workers at the post office. In the private sector there would be about 400,000."

Though Issa's numbers are likely on the high side — the most recent official estimates from the postal service put the total employees at 574,000 — reducing the size of the workforce and consolidating operations has been a priority.