Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators
Prepare incoming and outgoing mail for distribution for the United States Postal Service (USPS). Examine, sort, and route mail. Load, operate, and occasionally adjust and repair mail processing, sorting, and canceling machinery. Keep records of shipments, pouches, and sacks, and perform other duties related to mail handling within the postal service. Includes postal service mail sorters and processors employed by USPS contractors.
105,200 people do this job in the US. $58,470 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 1%
- 0%
- 99%
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, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 1%. Today's estimate: 1%.
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 . 14 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operate various types of equipment, such as computer scanning equipment, addressographs, mimeographs, optical character readers, and bar-code sorters.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 29% | 50 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Sort odd-sized mail by hand, sort mail that other workers have been unable to sort, and segregate items requiring special handling.Done daily by most who do it. | 11% | 29 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Train new workers.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 11% | 3.3 h50 min to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Direct items according to established routing schemes, using computer-controlled keyboards or voice-recognition equipment.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 11% | 38 min8 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Bundle, label, and route sorted mail to designated areas, depending on destinations and according to established procedures and deadlines.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Clear jams in sorting equipment.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 7% | 13 min4 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Check items to ensure that addresses are legible and correct, that sufficient postage has been paid or the appropriate documentation is attached, and that items are in a suitable condition for processing.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 17 min8 min to 42 min | Stays with people | |
| Load and unload mail trucks, sometimes lifting containers of mail onto equipment that transports items to sorting stations.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 38 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Open and label mail containers.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 4% | 10 min4 min to 21 min | Stays with people | |
| Distribute incoming mail into the correct boxes or pigeonholes.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 25 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Move containers of mail, using equipment, such as forklifts and automated "trains".Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 17 min7 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Cancel letter or parcel post stamps by hand.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 1% | 13 min4 min to 38 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.
- Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service7% now, 7% by 2028
- Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks43% now, 43% by 2028
- Postal Service Clerks29% now, 29% by 2028
- Stockers and Order Fillers18% now, 18% by 2028
- Office Machine Operators, Except Computer11% now, 11% by 2028
- Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping21% now, 21% 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).