The U.S. Postal Service ended the first quarter of fiscal 2010 under a mountain of red ink — and now postal employees are dealing with a mountain of snow, too, at least in part of the country.

The Postal Service finished the first quarter, which ended on Dec. 31, with a $297 million loss. Mail volume fell by 8.9 percent compared with the same period a year earlier — from 50.2 billion pieces to 45.7 billion pieces. It's the Postal Service's eighth consecutive unprofitable quarter: The agency last posted a profit in the first quarter of fiscal 2008.

But the figures are slightly better than last year, when the Postal Service posted a $380 million loss in the first quarter. And the latest red ink wasn't unexpected, according to postal officials, who say mail volume is still feeling the impact of the recent recession.

"Economic drivers that significantly affect mail volumes, such as continuing high unemployment levels and lower investments, appear to be lagging general economic recovery," Joe Corbett, the Postal Service's chief financial officer, said in a statement.

The first quarter, which includes the holiday season, is typically the Postal Service's most lucrative — suggesting that the red ink will worsen for the rest of 2010.

Postal managers are still aggressively cutting costs to deal with declining mail volume: The agency slashed more than 28 million work hours in the first quarter of 2010, according to Yvonne Yoerger, a postal spokeswoman. The Postal Service cut another 115 million work hours in fiscal 2009.

In the Washington, D.C., metro area, meanwhile, postal managers are trying to figure out how to deliver the volume of mail they already have: The historic snowstorm that hit the area over the weekend has had a serious impact on delivery service. The Postal Service suspended operations in the area last Saturday. Mail carriers delivered to 80 percent of their routes Monday, according to Deborah Yackley, a postal spokeswoman, who said 70 percent of carriers made it to work.

"We're hoping for normal delivery [Tuesday]," Yackley said. "But a lot of people have not cleared the area around their mailboxes, and we're asking people to do that, so the carriers can get there."

Yackley said it's too early to predict the impact of the next storm, which could dump another 10 to 20 inches of snow on the region on Tuesday and Wednesday.