Job Check
Postal Service Clerks
Perform any combination of tasks in a United States Postal Service (USPS) post office, such as receive letters and parcels; sell postage and revenue stamps, postal cards, and stamped envelopes; fill out and sell money orders; place mail in pigeon holes of mail rack or in bags; and examine mail for correct postage. Includes postal service clerks employed by USPS contractors.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Weigh letters and parcels, compute mailing costs based on type, weight, and destination, and affix correct postage.Mostly human for now
- 02Check mail to ensure correct postage and that packages and letters are in proper condition for mailing.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 03Sort incoming and outgoing mail, according to type and destination, by hand or by operating electronic mail-sorting and scanning devices.Mostly human for now
- 04Obtain signatures from recipients of registered or special delivery mail.Mostly human for now
- 05Answer questions regarding mail regulations and procedures, postage rates, and post office boxes.AI could speed this up a lot
- 06Transport mail from one work station to another.Mostly human for now
- 07Sell and collect payment for products such as stamps, prepaid mail envelopes, and money orders.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 08Keep money drawers in order, and record and balance daily transactions.AI could speed this up a lot
- 09Register, certify, and insure letters and parcels.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 10Complete forms regarding changes of address, or theft or loss of mail, or for special services such as registered or priority mail.AI could speed this up a lot
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job lossToo little dataNot enough work use was seen to measure. This does not mean the job is safe from AI.Anthropic, 2026
32%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 73% of jobsin how often and how well AI helped with this job’s work in Microsoft Copilot chats (2024 data).Microsoft Research (Tomlinson et al.), 2025
Above 91% of jobsin how much of this job’s physical work robots have been shown to do, from factories to homes (2026).Anthropic, 2026
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- Weigh letters and parcels, compute mailing costs based on type, weight, and destination, and affix correct postage.
- Sort incoming and outgoing mail, according to type and destination, by hand or by operating electronic mail-sorting and scanning devices.
- Obtain signatures from recipients of registered or special delivery mail.