Postal Service Mail Carriers
Sort and deliver mail for the United States Postal Service (USPS). Deliver mail on established route by vehicle or on foot. Includes postal service mail carriers employed by USPS contractors.
328,820 people do this job in the US. $60,550 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 4%
- 0%
- 96%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 1%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 4%. Today's estimate: 4%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
The tasks
Sorted by . 21 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deliver mail to residences and business establishments along specified routes by walking or driving, using a combination of satchels, carts, cars, and small trucks.Done daily by most who do it. | 63% | 3.8 h2.5 h to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Sort mail for delivery, arranging it in delivery sequence.Done daily by most who do it. | 15% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Bundle mail in preparation for delivery or transportation to relay boxes.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Return to the post office with mail collected from homes, businesses, and public mailboxes.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 21 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Maintain accurate records of deliveries.Done daily by most who do it. | 2% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Meet schedules for the collection and return of mail.Done daily by most who do it. | 2% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Obtain signed receipts for registered, certified, and insured mail, collect associated charges, and complete any necessary paperwork.Done daily by most who do it. | 2% | 10 min4 min to 21 min | Stays with people | |
| Scan labels on letters or parcels to confirm receipt.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 2% | 3 min1 min to 7 min | Stays with people | |
| Travel to post offices to pick up the mail for routes or pick up mail from postal relay boxes.Done daily by most who do it. | 1.0% | 17 min8 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Register, certify, and insure parcels and letters.Done daily by most who do it. | 0.9% | 10 min4 min to 17 min | Stays with people | |
| Turn in money and receipts collected along mail routes.Done daily by most who do it. | 0.9% | 13 min4 min to 21 min | Stays with people | |
| Return incorrectly addressed mail to senders.Done daily by most who do it. | 0.8% | 4 min2 min to 13 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Postal Service Clerks29% now, 29% by 2028
- Couriers and Messengers7% now, 7% by 2028
- Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service7% now, 7% by 2028
- Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks43% now, 43% by 2028
- Cargo and Freight Agents45% now, 45% by 2028
- Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators1% now, 1% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).