USPS Office of Inspector General

As the infographic indicates, it was a busy six-month period for us. The number of published reports in this period reflects a return to business as usual after the partial government shutdown in early 2019 delayed release of some reports until the second half of the fiscal year.

By its very nature, the U.S. Postal Service is a labor-intensive organization. In fact, labor makes up three-quarter of total postal costs — or $57 billion.

Controlling these costs is essential to the long-term viability of the postal system. That’s why our latest white paper attempted to determine where labor costs are increasing, where they have shrunk, and how have they changed over the past 10 years.

You get what you pay for with Priority Mail Express, the U.S. Postal Service’s fastest mail product. It’s not cheap, but it comes with a money-back guarantee should USPS fall short of the promised one- or two-day delivery.

All things considered, the U.S. Postal Service performed well in processing and delivering election and political mail during the 2018 midterm elections. But there are areas that could be improved for the general election in 2020.

This month’s infographic, taken from our audit on workload and workforce performance indicators in customer service, delivery and vehicle operations, shows First-Class Mail volume has declined more than 11 percent since 2014 while Package Services volume has increased at an extraordinary rate. Still, the growth in Package Services has not been nearly enough to offset total U.S. Postal Service mail volume declines.