Postal Hiring Freeze

The Postal Service is freezing hiring nationwide for administrative and management jobs, the Washington Post's Federal Eye reports.

The freeze affects some 8,000 positions, including 2,000 postmaster vacancies. It doesn't cover mail delivery jobs covered by bargaining agreements with USPS labor unions. But it does mean that letter carriers and clerks are temporarily filling some vacant postmaster and supervisor jobs, according to Bob Rapoza, president of the National Association of Postmasters of the United States.

Here's the official Postal Service notification of the freeze.

The freeze comes as Congress is moving to block the Postal Service's proposal to move to a five-day delivery schedule. USPS says eliminating Saturday deliveries would save $3 billion annually -- $2.7 billion of which would come from eliminating 40,000 jobs.