U.S. Post Office Blamed Short Staffing For Problems With Mail In Chicago, But One Man Says He Looked For Job Hoping To Help And Found Nothing

CHICAGO (CBS) -- We have been reporting on mail problems for months, and we are still getting bombarded with emails and calls from people saying delivery is only getting worse.

So CBS 2 Political Investigator Dana Kozlov began digging to get answers about why the problems persist, and what the U.S. Postal Service is doing about it.

The Post Office at 4850 N. Broadway in the Uptown neighborhood is one that is experiencing ongoing mail delivery issues. Post Office higher-ups keep telling us it is because the Chicago area, in general, is short-staffed.

But Aaron Stults, who gets his mail from the Uptown Post Office, said he has been trying to get a USPS job to help – but can't find one.

"I started looking in earnest at the end of October, beginning of November when all the stories started coming out about how mail delivery wasn't happening," Stults said. "I noticed it in my neighborhood."

That is when Stults, the son of two postal carriers, began his weekly online search for a Chicago Post Office job. With all the problems plaguing the district, he assumed he'd find something.

"I just checked earlier today – there were 42 jobs posted for the state of Illinois, and nothing in the Chicago area that I saw," Stults said.

We checked too. He's right. But that raised red flags, considering as recently as Tuesday, Chicago's Post Office district spokesman blamed "staff shortages" as a reason people living in the Edison Park neighborhood were told to come pick up their mail themselves.

Head south about 22 miles - and Jon, last name withheld, said delivery is no better there.

"The lady was here maybe two weeks, three weeks ago, we had our normal lady; we seen her – but then after that, we haven't had nothing," Jon said.

Kozlov sent several emails to that USPS spokesman asking, specifically, how short-staffed they are and why no Chicago jobs are posted. He replied the latest area job posting cycle was from Feb. 4 to Feb. 8.

Stults said the closest jobs to Chicago he's seen are in Plainfield and Palatine. Jon said at this point, he'll take any mail delivery.

"I would like answers, and to know what to do if we don't get our mail," Jon said.

Despite pushing, Post Office spokesman Timothy Norman never said specifically how short-staffed Chicago is. So that leaves no real indication when, or if, things will get better.