We want to wish all workers a very happy Labor Day, but especially the employees of the Postal Service!

The Postal Service is a huge organization with a workforce of more than 635,000 employees as of the end of last year. The vast majority of postal employees — 98 percent — work in field positions around the country. These include employees who transport the mail as well as those who sort and prepare mailpieces at Processing and Distribution Centers. And, of course, there are the city and rural carriers who deliver your mail and postal clerks working in your neighborhood USPS facility.

Only around 2 percent of postal employees work in headquarters or headquarters-related positions, and not all are in Washington, D.C. Many of these employees are also located around the country. In fact, headquarters-related positions include the Postal Inspection Service and us here at the OIG.

As for our workforce, it’s made up of auditors, investigators, researchers, legal counselors, and operations support staff. We’re lean — for every 635 postal employees, there’s one of us — but our role is crucial:  ensuring efficiency, accountability, and integrity in the Postal Service. That means we’re often pointing out opportunities and challenges at the Postal Service and recommending solutions. However, as part of our work conducting audits, research, and investigations, we also visit postal sites around the country and see every day how hard postal employees work, especially in the hot summer months, to bring us our mail.

This Monday, as we celebrate Labor Day, let’s raise a glass of lemonade in their honor!