USPS Deeper Dive: Financials & Productivity

The dashboard is intended to provide a snapshot of the Postal Service’s business and operational performance over time. It features interactive data about the Postal Service’s mail volume, revenue, expenses, and balance sheet; tracks how efficiently USPS has used resources to handle its workload; provides a breakdown of the funding status of the agency’s retirement plans; and allows users to trace how closely the value of the postal monopoly has kept pace with the cost of fulfilling the universal service obligation (USO).

All data comes from publicly available sources, including the Postal Service’s Annual Report to Congress and Form 10-K, and the Postal Regulatory Commission’s (PRC) Annual Report to the President and Congress and Annual Compliance Determination Report.

Every graphic on the dashboard includes a “tool tip,” symbolized by info_outline. Hover your mouse over the tool tip to find definitions of terms, data sources, and nuances about the data that users should be aware of.

Currently, data is updated once a year, just after the Postal Service and PRC release new annual reports and filings. The Postal Service typically does so in December, and the PRC between January and March.

Pending the availability of funding to further enhance the dashboard, future updates could include quarterly or monthly data (in addition to annual data), and additional financial and productivity metrics. The dashboard could also expand beyond financial performance and productivity to include other measures of the Postal Service’s organizational health. 

No. Currently, the dashboard only includes revenue and volume data for mail classes (e.g., First-Class Mail).

Our office regularly conducts audits and issues white papers about the Postal Service’s financial performance and productivity. These audits and white papers can be found on our website at: https://www.uspsoig.gov/reports

To submit feedback about this dashboard, click on the “contact us” link at the bottom of the webpage. Feedback will be regularly reviewed and used to enhance future versions of the dashboard.

The U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) mission is to provide affordable universal service nationwide, while operating as a self-funded, financially viable entity. Its operations are governed by a regulatory framework that shapes cost management, revenue generation, and service delivery. The Postal Service has flexibility in managing certain expenses and pursuing revenue, but it also operates under defined legal and financial constraints. The information below outlines these parameters and provides context for trends in the agency’s financial performance, highlighting how outcomes are shaped by both operational decisions and the legal, regulatory, and structural factors that guide USPS operations.

The Postal Service manages many operating expenses, including labor, transportation, and capital expenditures (such as purchasing and maintaining processing equipment). Certain costs are impacted by legal requirements, including obligations to provide a defined level of service and regulations governing pay, benefits, pensions, and workers’ compensation. These factors affect the extent and the pace at which costs can be adjusted in response to changes in revenue.

The Postal Service’s universal service obligation (USO) requires delivery to all addresses in the United States six days a week, establishing a standard level of service across the country. More than one million new addresses are added each year, expanding the delivery network – even as mail volume declines. This contributes to fixed operational costs and limits the ability to reduce expenses in response to fluctuations in mail volume. In addition, the Postal Service cannot close post offices solely based on financial performance.

Labor is the largest component of USPS’s operational budget. Employee compensation and working conditions are established through collective bargaining agreements and federal regulations, which also govern workers’ compensation and retirement programs. These rules provide structure to pay, working conditions, and benefits administration. The Postal Service has discretion over the composition of its workforce, including the mix of career and pre-career employees, within the limits set by collective bargaining agreements.

Career postal employees participate in either the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). Unlike other federal agencies, USPS makes retirement contributions from agency revenues rather than federal appropriations. By law, retiree assets must be invested in low-risk U.S. Treasury securities instead of other investment types such as stocks or corporate bonds. The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) required advance funding for employee retirement and retiree health benefits, which was later repealed by the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022.

As with other federal agencies, the Postal Service is subject to the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA), which establishes parameters for benefits, including duration and coverage levels. FECA limits the use of some cost-saving measures that are available in the private sector, such as settlements or buyouts.

The Postal Service almost exclusively relies on revenue generated from the sale of its products and services, with appropriations representing only about 0.1 percent of the agency’s revenue. The Postal Service has a statutorily defined scope of products and services that it can offer, limiting its ability to cultivate non-postal revenue streams. The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act largely restricted non-postal services, with limited exceptions for federal agency services. The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 expanded the allowable scope of non-postal services to state, local, and tribal governments under certain conditions.

Market-Dominant mail, a category consisting primarily of First-Class Mail, Marketing Mail, and Periodicals, remains the Postal Service’s largest source of revenue. Since 2006, mail volume has been in decline, primarily due to digital diversion, and the trend is expected to continue. While package volume has grown significantly over the same period, packages are more labor intensive to deliver and have a different cost structure than mail. The package market is also highly competitive, which adds a degree of unpredictability to the Postal Service’s package volume.

Legislation and regulations set limits on how USPS can adjust prices for mail products. For Market-Dominant products (e.g., First-Class Mail), price increases are generally capped at the rate of inflation, with additional adjustments allowed for mail density, non-compensatory products, and funding of employee retirement benefits. Competitive products, such as packages, are not subject to a price cap but must maintain a price floor to ensure fair competition.

Legislation set a $3 billion cap on the Postal Service’s annual borrowing authority and a $15 billion cap on its total debt. These limits have not changed in more than 30 years and do not adjust for inflation. The Postal Service was at its $15 billion borrowing limit at the end of FY 2025.