As we wrote back in September, the U.S. Postal Service was looking at closing more than half of its mail processing centers around the nation, which was predicted would translate into around 35,000 lost jobs. Last night, the USPS finally announced that while some of those centers have survived the executioner’s blade, the number of layoffs will remain about the same.

In all, 223 of the 264 processing facilities that had been considered for possible closure or consolidation will be affected. See the full list of facilities (PDF) here.

These closures mean that 30,000 full-time and 5,000 “non-career” positions — covering everything from mail handlers to mechanics to maintenance employees to managers — will no longer be needed.

There is no general timeline for when the layoffs and closures will actually take place, though the existing moratorium prevents USPS from closing any facilities until May.

As for those buildings that will be shuttered entirely, the Postal Service says it will decide on a case by case basis what it does with the property.

All of these closing, consolidations and cannings are part of USPS’ plan to pull itself out of the debt quicksand in which it’s currently trapped. It’s claiming that all this trimming down will result in more than $2 billion in cost savings.

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