"There's also work inside the office, which is basically what we call 'casing' the mail. Have you ever been in the back of a post office? Well, the carriers come in the morning, typically pretty early in the morning, and the mail is almost all there for them for the day. But it's not all sorted."
It takes several hours for a carrier to sort the mail, Yackley said.
Mark Jeffrey, 36, of Alexandria took a job last month at the Leesburg Post Office, which now has openings for eight carriers.
(Photos Len Spoden For The Washington Post)
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"And if you don't have a safe driving record or you're not a good and experienced driver, maybe this job won't work out for you, either," she said.
Some rural drivers are required to use their own cars to make deliveries, for which they are given additional compensation.
"It's a good job. It's an excellent job. It's a very secure type of job," Yackley said. "Trouble is, even though we are offering a good salary and excellent benefits and good job security, it's still tough to get people."
It's especially tough because not many local people are out looking for jobs.
The unemployment rate in Northern Virginia is 1.9 percent, according to data from the Virginia Employment Commission. (It's 1.7 percent in Loudoun, 1.8 percent in Fairfax, 1.9 percent in Fauquier and 2.2 percent in Prince William.)
That compares with a national unemployment rate of 5.4 percent.
"In addition to the tight labor market, there's also the high cost of living in Northern Virginia," Yackley said. "That makes it difficult to find carriers" who can afford to live in the region.
Mark Jeffrey, 36, commutes from his home in Alexandria to the Leesburg Post Office, where he began working last month as a $13.17-an-hour rural carrier.
"I decided to take this job in Leesburg because of the opportunities for advancement in the postal service," he said. "I think working in the fastest-growing county in the country gives me the opportunity to excel, to move up. I'd like to advance to the clerk level and then apply for a marketing job in the postal service."
Jeffrey said he came to the Washington area about two years ago from Ghana and took a job as a contract driver with FedEx.
"As a contractor with FedEx, I didn't have any health benefits," he said. "That's another reason I took the job with the postal service. I have a wife and three children. . . . So the benefits are very good."
