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.

The occupation "Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators" has an automation risk of 51.3%, which is just above a 50/50 chance that core job functions could be automated in the future. The base automation risk for this role stands at 51.8%, indicating that slightly more than half of the tasks associated with this job could potentially be replaced by machines or automated processes. This moderate risk is driven by the increasing sophistication of sorting equipment and the expanding use of computer scanning and optical character reader technology within postal operations. As the volume of mail handled by postal services continues to rise, organizations are incentivized to find automated solutions to improve the speed and accuracy of mail sorting and processing. Among the most automatable tasks for these workers are those involving mechanical or repetitive operations, which are ideal for machines to perform efficiently and with minimal error. The top three tasks at risk of automation include clearing jams in sorting equipment, operating various types of sorting and scanning technology, and sorting odd-sized mail or mail that others have failed to sort, as well as managing items requiring special handling. These tasks tend to be routine and follow set procedures, allowing machines, especially those equipped with advanced robotics and AI, to easily replicate human performance. The development of smarter sorting equipment and robotic arms capable of handling diverse mail types has particularly increased automation potential in these areas. Conversely, the tasks least likely to be automated stem from their requirement for human judgment, adaptability, or personal interaction. Tasks such as manually canceling stamps on letters or parcels, searching directories to find correct addresses for redirected mail, and training new workers are much less susceptible to automation. These require either a level of dexterity, context-based reasoning, or communication that is more challenging for current AI and robotic systems to replicate. Bottleneck skills such as originality are notably low in this role, with levels at 1.9% and 1.6%, suggesting that little creative problem-solving or novel thinking is needed in the bulk of the work. However, even this small element of originality required for some resistant tasks acts as a partial buffer against full automation, suggesting that some aspects of the job may continue to require human oversight.