The US Postal Service losing streak continued in February, with the agency reporting a loss of $658 million, bringing the year to date loss for the fiscal year to $1.8 billion. The agency continued to aggressively cut employee work hours, which were down 12% from the prior year. That translated to a 7.3% decrease in wages and benefits. (The savings are inflated by 3-4% because 2008 was a leap year, so there was an extra weekday compared with 2009.) Revenue, meanwhile was down 12.8%. The slide in revenue accelerated from January’s 11.8% decline, but that number is also slightly inflated by the extra day in SPLY.

The sharpest drop was in standard mail, down 22% from February 2008. The decrease meant that there was actually less standard mail than first class in the system for the month, reversing recent trends. First class mail volume was down 12.7% compared with last year. Year to date, the USPS has processed about 11 billion fewer pieces of mail than it had at this point a year ago.

Non-personnel expenses were down 12.2% or $167 million, led by a 15% drop in transportation costs and a 14% decline in supplies and services. Information technology expenses increased by 26%, or about $7 million.

(Monthly financial results are unaudited and subject to change. Volume numbers are derived from permit data and statistical sampling. The sampling portion of the RPW system is designed to be statistically valid on a quarterly and annual basis.)