MTN News has been covering the staffing shortages and mail delivery issues at the Baxter Lane Post Office in Bozeman since last year. Monday, June 5, it hosted another job fair to help better staff this location.
Jesse Tuten lives in Bozeman and says he visits the Baxter Lane Post Office pretty frequently. He says he has noticed their staffing issues, especially with clerks behind the service counter.
“It's usually a pretty long line. About 25, 30 minutes is probably the maximum," Tuten said. "I've waited, but it seems like they could use some more help that’s not temporary.”
Tuten believes a job fair is a good idea to help improve staffing issues at this Post Office. District Workforce Operations Manager with the United States Postal Service Kirsten Sherrell says the Post Office is hoping to hire as many people as they can from this job fair.
“We're looking for carriers, both rural and city and clerks," Sherrell said. "These folks are a lot of the clerks that we have, the front clerks, and then we also have clerks that distribute mail in the back.”
Sherrell says staffing and the organization of the job fair have improved over the last year, but they're always looking for more hires.
“We have some needs, but it's looking better than it has in a long time. So we've brought on several career employees recently. So that's exciting," Sherrell said. “I can't really speak to where we're at specifically, but I know things have improved drastically out here.”
Salaries at the Post Office start at around $19.50 and go up to around $24 an hour. Some people, like Tuten, don't think the salary is quite high enough for the cost of living in Bozeman.
“It's a little bit low, on the lower side just for kind of a government job," Tuten said. "I definitely think it's more important and we need more people here.”
On July 27, USPS will be hosting a Tri-State Job Fair at several locations around Montana, including the Baxter Lane Post Office. The theme will be Delivering Careers.
Another job fair will occur at the Baxter Lane Post Office on June 12.
You can apply for a job with the Post Office at https://about.usps.com/careers/.
