YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Mail processing centers in Youngstown and New Castle will likely close.

The U.S. Postal Service is desperate to save money.

"Since 2006 first class mail, that's letters and cards and bills that people send in the mail, has declined 25%.

First Class mail is our major source of revenue," said Regional Post Office Spokesperson David Van Allen.

The post office does not receive any federal funding. It operates off of the money it makes from products and services.

So a 25% decline in first class mail meant a 5.1 billion dollar loss last year and an 8.5 billion dollar loss the year before.

"In a nutshell, we're in dire financial straits and need to make adjustments for the way that people use the mail," Van Allen said.

So the postal service conducted a five month study to figure out which of its 500 processing centers it should close.

The results of that study led to the decision to consolidate the Youngstown processing operation with the one in Cleveland.

Eight other processing operations in the state will also close.

Ten more will close in Pennsylvania, including the one in New Castle which will be consolidated with Pittsburgh.

The goal is to get the remaining centers operating at full capacity.

"We have to get leaner. We have to get smaller in order to remain viable. The postal service isn't going away, but we do have to adjust to the economics, the very real economics that aren't going away," Van Allen said.

About 350 people work at the Youngstown processing center. Two hundred and fifty of them will be reassigned. One hundred jobs will be eliminated through attrition.

The post office end of the operation will remain open.

And the only impact the customer may see is an extra day tacked onto the delivery of first class mail.

No date has been set for closures.

At this point the only thing that could stop the consolidation process is comprehensive postal legislation from Congress.

They have until May 15th to come up with that alternative plan.