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Postal Service: NAICS 491

About the Postal Service subsector

The postal service subsector is part of the transportation and warehousing sector.

The Postal Service subsector includes the activities of the National Post Office and its subcontractors operating under a universal service obligation to provide mail services, and using the infrastructure required to fulfill that obligation. These services include delivering letters and small parcels. These articles can be described as those that can be handled by one person without using special equipment. This allows the collection, pick-up, and delivery operations to be done with limited labor costs and minimal equipment. Sorting and transportation activities, where necessary, are generally mechanized. The restriction to small parcels distinguishes these establishments from those in the transportation industries. These establishments may also provide express delivery services using the infrastructure established for provision of basic mail services.

North American Industry Classification System

The postal service subsector consists of a single industry group, Postal Service: NAICS 4911.

Workforce Statistics

This section provides information relating to employment in postal service. These data are obtained from employer or establishment surveys. The following tables present an overview of the industry , data for occupations common to the industry, and projections of occupational employment change.

Employment by Occupation

Data series Employment,
2023

First-line supervisors/managers of transportation and material-moving machine and vehicle operators

4,890

Postal service clerks

78,130

Postal service mail carriers

331,600

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

116,520

Postmasters and mail superintendents

13,810

(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)

Earnings

Recent hourly and annual earnings for occupations commonly found in postal service.

Earnings by Occupation

Data series Wages, 2023
Hourly Annual
Median Mean Median Mean

First-line supervisors/managers of transportation and material-moving machine and vehicle operators

38.27 38.93 79,600 80,980

Postal service clerks

28.64 28.48 59,570 59,240

Postal service mail carriers

27.08 28.53 56,330 59,340

Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators

25.69 27.10 53,440 56,360

Postmasters and mail superintendents

42.63 43.16 88,670 89,770

(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)

Work-related Fatalities

This section presents data for the industry on the number of workplace fatalities in postal service.

Data series 2016 2017 2018 2019

Fatalities

Number of fatalities

14 21 17 21

Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

(Source: Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities)

Prices

This section provides industry-specific pricing information. The producer price index measures the percentage change in prices that domestic producers receive for goods and services. The prices included in the producer price index are from the first commercial transaction.

Data series Back
data
Jun.
2024
Jul.
2024
Aug.
2024
Sep.
2024

Producer price index

(p)301.288 (p)301.288 (p)319.548 (p)319.548

Percent change from previous month

  (p)0.0% (p)0.0% (p)6.1% (p)0.0%

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Producer Price Indexes)

Workplace Trends

This section presents data on the number of establishments in postal service. Also included in this section is information on productivity, presented as the rate of change in output per hour of workers in the industry.

Establishments

Data series Back
data
2nd quarter
2023
3rd quarter
2023
4th quarter
2023
1st quarter
2024

Number of establishments

Federal government

29,401 29,677 29,721 (p)29,798

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

Productivity

This section presents productivity and related data for the industry, presented as the percent change from the previous year. Measures of labor productivity, or output per hour, compare the growth in output to the growth in hours worked. Growth in unit labor costs represent the annual change in the labor cost of producing one unit of output.

Data series Back
data
2020 2021 2022 2023

Labor productivity, output per hour

1.0 -3.5 -5.3 -5.7

Hours worked

0.1 1.4 -0.8 -2.3

Output

1.1 -2.2 -6.0 -7.9

Unit labor costs

0.5 -0.3 7.3 17.1

(Source: Productivity)

 

Data extracted on: October 11, 2024