Human edge, steady

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.

AI Resistance Index 30 of 99

Changing faster than most: more resilient than 30% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is low (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it low), and US jobs are projected to change by -5.3% 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): $58,470
Job growth to 2035: -5.3%
Openings a year: 7,300
People doing it (2025): 101,000
Usual route in: No formal credential, then short on-the-job training

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Where people already use AI for this work

Examine materials or documentation for accuracy or compliance
Operate computer systems or computerized equipment

From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).

Work AI rarely helps with

Process shipments or mail
Package objects
Maintain tools or equipment

What the work looks like

Direct items according to established routing schemes, using computer-controlled keyboards or voice-recognition equipment.
Check items to ensure that addresses are legible and correct, that sufficient postage has been paid or the appropriate documentation is attached, and that items are in a suitable condition for processing.
Clear jams in sorting equipment.
Bundle, label, and route sorted mail to designated areas, depending on destinations and according to established procedures and deadlines.
Operate various types of equipment, such as computer scanning equipment, addressographs, mimeographs, optical character readers, and bar-code sorters.

From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.

What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects

Fewer of these jobs, as continued gains are realized from improved sorting and tracking equipment and processes.

Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook

Pourers and casters, metalHuman edge, steady, Index 48, -5.0%
Laundry and dry-cleaning workersHuman edge, growing, Index 83, +4.3%
TapersHuman edge, steady, Index 38, -1.6%
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, handHuman edge, steady, Index 72, +1.8%

Also known as: Automation Clerk, Distribution Clerk, Mail Handler, Mail Processor, Computer Forwarding System Markup Clerk (CFS Markup Clerk), Flat Sorting Machine Clerk (FSM Clerk), Mail Handler Equipment Operator, Mail Processing Clerk.

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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.