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STRATUSWORKFORCE SCAN
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Postmasters and Mail Superintendents

Plan, direct, or coordinate operational, administrative, management, and support services of a U.S. post office; or coordinate activities of workers engaged in postal and related work in assigned post office.

13,810 people do this job in the US. $96,660 a year.

now
19%

of the working time. Estimate.

Kinds of work
  • 23%
  • 42%
  • 35%
0%

Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.

Half the desk work within reach
Already

On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.

Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030

0%25%50%75%100%2027202820292030NowDesk work: 23% of the time
Chosen to Ceiling: the share
DateNow
NowEnd of 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, 16%. Today's estimate: 19%.

0%10%20%30%2023202420252026GPT-4, March 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4 Turbo (Nov 2023), November 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4o, May 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (June 2024), June 2024: 0% within reacho1-preview, September 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (Oct 2024), October 2024: 0% within reacho1, December 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.7 Sonnet, February 2025: 0% within reacho3, April 2025: 3% within reachGPT-5, August 2025: 4% within reachGemini 3 Pro, November 2025: 6% within reachClaude Opus 4.5, November 2025: 6% within reachGPT-5.2, December 2025: 7% within reachClaude Opus 4.6, February 2026: 7% within reachClaude Mythos Preview (early), April 2026: 16% within reachToday (estimate), September 2026: 19% within reach
Each step is a new best model measured by METR, four in five; the dashed end is today's estimate. Point at a dot for the model.

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 . 13 tasks from .

TaskKind
Direct and coordinate operational, management, and supportive services of one or a number of postal facilities.Done daily by most who do it. 32%4.2 h1.7 h to 1 work dayStays with people
Organize and supervise activities, such as the processing of incoming and outgoing mail.Done daily by most who do it. 26%2.5 h50 min to 6.7 hStays with people
Prepare and submit detailed and summary reports of post office activities to designated supervisors.Done daily by most who do it. 11%2.1 h50 min to 4.2 h72%Half by now
Negotiate labor disputes.Done more than monthly by most who do it. 9%4.2 h1.7 h to 1.3 work daysStays with people
Prepare employee work schedules.Done daily by most who do it. 5%1.7 h50 min to 3.3 h90%Half by now
Hire and train employees, and evaluate their performance.Done more than yearly by most who do it. 5%3.3 h1.3 h to 1 work dayStays with people
Monitor employees' work schedules and attendance for payroll purposes.Done daily by most who do it. 3%25 min13 min to 50 min100%Half by now
Select and train postmasters and managers of associate postal units.Done more than yearly by most who do it.3%6.7 h1.7 h to 3.1 work daysStays with people
Resolve customer complaints.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task.2%21 min8 min to 50 min100%Half by now
Inform the public of available services, and of postal laws and regulations.Done daily by most who do it.0.7%17 min8 min to 50 min100%Half by now
Confer with suppliers to obtain bids for proposed purchases and to requisition supplies, disbursing funds according to federal regulations.Done more than yearly by most who do it.0.4%1.1 h25 min to 2.1 hStays with people
Collect rents for post office boxes.Done more than weekly by most who do it.0.2%13 min4 min to 25 min100%Half by now

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.

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).