The United States postal workers at the East Pittsburgh Remote Encoding Center said they knew the end was near when they saw that everyone was scheduled for a shift on the same day last week.

For some, the May 14 scheduling softened the blow of the announcement that the center would close Nov. 14 after 13 years of service, sending its 433 employees looking for jobs elsewhere.

The East Pittsburgh site is the 48th out of 55 centers to close The centers, whose employees decipher addresses on letters and packages that mail-reading technology cannot read, have been shuttered as technology has improved.

"When they were established, they were meant to be temporary until the technology made them unnecessary," said U.S. Postal Service spokesman Tad Kelley.

Some employees said they were shocked that the center did not survive the most recent round of cuts, especially because it ranked first in productivity, said employee Roberta Fraicola, of Latrobe.

"Honestly we were surprised," she said. "We weren't expecting it to be us."

Other employees said they knew the center was considered temporary and that the possibility of closure always loomed.

"We knew from the beginning that we were a temporary operation," said Susan Tomasic, a 10-year veteran from Murrysville. "We were fortunate that we were No. 48 instead of No. 1."

Mayor Louis Payne said the borough will lose about $20,000 a year from the $52 local services tax on employees. The closure also could impact the local economy, as it may mean fewer restaurant patrons and less revenue from parking.

Marnie Gregory, of East McKeesport, has worked at the center since it opened in 1995. As a career employee, she is ensured a placement elsewhere with the postal service, but there is no guarantee that it will be nearby.

She said it would be difficult to relocate because her husband works for the postal service on the North Side and because she has a 17-month-old son.

"In one respect, I am willing to relocate. But I also have to worry about my husband's job," she said. "It worries me because [my son] is so young."

Ms. Tomasic is a "part-time flexible" employee, which means the postal service will find her a job elsewhere, but can't guarantee her more than four hours of work every two weeks.

"[My concern is] going to be hours ... and how far we have to drive to get them," she said.

Chuck Pugar, president of the Pittsburgh Metro chapter of the American Postal Workers Union, said he is concerned because there are few job openings in the area.

"There's not a whole lot of opportunity and it's going to get ugly for some of these people," he said.

Transitional employees, like Rob Trayers, of North Huntingdon, will not be placed elsewhere and will be out of work Nov. 14. But he said news of the closure came as a relief because, as a transitional employee, he has no health care and is subject to layoffs on an annual basis.

"That meant every year I'd have to wonder 'Will I be hired this year?' " he said.

Losing his job means an opportunity to find a more permanent job, hopefully with benefits, he said.

Though Ms. Tomasic is sad to leave the center, she said the closure was inevitable and she is not bitter.

"We're actually casualties of technology," she said. "No big, bad man came around and took our jobs away, and we'll survive."