Office and administrative support
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.
Median pay
$58,470
Growth to 2035
−5%
declining
Openings a year
7,300
Time to qualify*
1 month
* From a bachelor's degree in an unrelated field.
Pay
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators
Getting in
- Typical entry education
- No formal educational credential
- On-the-job training
- Short-term on-the-job training
- Prior experience
- None
Calculate your switch to postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators
What the work is like
Dealing with the public
Unpleasant or angry people
Time pressure
Cost of a mistake
Freedom to make decisions
Repeating the same tasks
Time sitting
Time standing
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators: 37% usually work over 40 hours a week
Core tasks
- Clear jams in sorting equipment.
- Operate various types of equipment, such as computer scanning equipment, addressographs, mimeographs, optical character readers, and bar-code sorters.
- Sort odd-sized mail by hand, sort mail that other workers have been unable to sort, and segregate items requiring special handling.
Also called: Automation Clerk · Computer Forwarding System Markup Clerk (CFS Markup Clerk) · Distribution Clerk · Flat Sorting Machine Clerk (FSM Clerk) · Mail Handler · Mail Handler Equipment Operator · Mail Processing Clerk · Mail Processor
Outlook and AI
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators held 101,200 jobs in 2025. BLS projects 95,900 by 2035 (−5%, declining; all jobs: +3.5%).
Compare with
- Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators vs. Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service
- Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators vs. Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks
- Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators vs. Postal service clerk
- Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators vs. Stockers and order fillers
- Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators vs. Office machine operators, except computer
- Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators vs. Weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping
- Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators vs. Data entry keyer
- Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators vs. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand
- Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators vs. File clerk