Career Explorer Office and admin
Human edge, steady
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service
Prepare incoming and outgoing mail for distribution. Time-stamp, open, read, sort, and route incoming mail; and address, seal, stamp, fold, stuff, and affix postage to outgoing mail or packages. Duties may also include keeping necessary records and completed forms.
Changing faster than most: more resilient than 33% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is low (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it moderate), and US jobs are projected to change by -7.2% by 2035, expected to shrink.
AI struggles with much of this work. Hiring is expected to grow slower than average, or to shrink.
- Median pay (2025)
- $39,280
- Job growth to 2035
- -7.2%
- Openings a year
- 4,700
- People doing it (2025)
- 57,800
- Usual route in
- High school diploma, then short on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Explain regulations, policies, or procedures
- Examine materials or documentation for accuracy or compliance
- Obtain formal documentation or authorization
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Process shipments or mail
- Load products, materials, or equipment for transportation or further processing
- Sort materials or products
What the work looks like
- Lift and unload containers of mail or parcels onto equipment for transportation to sortation stations.
- Verify that items are addressed correctly, marked with the proper postage, and in suitable condition for processing.
- Read production orders to determine types and sizes of items scheduled for printing and mailing.
- Clear jams in sortation equipment.
- Place incoming or outgoing letters or packages into sacks or bins based on destination or type, and place identifying tags on sacks or bins.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- Fewer of these jobs, as companies use machines with programmable software that continues to supplant some office mailing tasks. Correspondence and communication will increasingly be done online and organizations will utilize less administrative staff to handle incoming and outgoing mail.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- PipelayersHuman edge, steady, Index 54, -3.1%
- Aircraft service attendantsHuman edge, growing, Index 91, +5.6%
- Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tendersHuman edge, steady, Index 62, +0.4%
- Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighersHuman edge, steady, Index 45, +2.5%
Also known as: Mail Clerk, Mail Machine Operator, Mail Sorter, Postal Clerk, Insert Operator, Inserter Operator, Mail Handler, Mail Processor.
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.