Has the USPS posted $83 billion in losses since 2006 as mail volumes declined?
The U.S. Postal Service, structured as a government-run corporation since a 1971 postal reform, last recorded a profit in 2006. Losses from 2006 to the beginning of 2019 totaled $83.1 billion.
The loss is largely due to a decline in the volume of mail during the past two decades. The number of individual pieces of mail sent through its system has declined by 31.4% in the last 20 years. The volume of first-class mail, the post office’s most profitable product, has fallen by almost half since the year 2000. (A first-class stamp has gone up from 37 cents in 2006 to 55 cents now.)
Some of the postal service’s reported financial losses can be attributed to a 2006 law requiring the service to pre-fund retiree health benefits. However, a 2012 report to Congress found that even without those costs, expenses still would have exceeded revenue for 2009, 2010 and 2011.
