![]() ![]() While it continued the upswing in the cost to send a first-class letter, it really didn't raise prices out of the ordinary. The above chart from 2013 shows how much today's 49-cent stamp (then the "proposed" rate) would cost in comparison to the past. But when you adjust it for inflation, the cost of postage has been relatively stable since the 1980s and is in fact cheap today compared to the mid-1970s. The USPS (through Congress) keeps ramping up the cost of postage, and with each hike, there is some degree of backlash. 5) The ever-rising (but really quite stable) cost of postage And the trend is still upward, so even as the postal service has shrunk in the last few years, it has grown more efficient by this measure. Today, the USPS is handling nearly 325,000 pieces of mail per worker, compared to around 104,000 in 1926. The number of postal workers may be shrinking, but the efficiency of the USPS has grown relatively steadily since 1926. But then email and online bill pay helped drag mail volume down sharply starting in the mid-2000s. Starting in 1886, the first year for which continuous data starts to be available (though data doesn't exist for most of 1914-1925), the amount of mail the USPS handled took off, growing exponentially until around 2000. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has said he wants ultimately to shrink the workforce down to 400,000 workers by 2017. But the agency could cut some of those workers through layoffs, if they do not accept buyouts or get other postal jobs. The postal service has been cutting its workforce through attrition - simply not hiring people to replace its retiring workers, as Government Executive reports - and is also offering buyouts to some postmasters, hoping they'll retire early. Today, there are just under 500,000 workers, down by around 300,000 from the nearly 800,000 there were in 1999. The number of workers skyrocketed as the population (and therefore number of customers) likewise grew, but in the last decade the postal service has aggressively cut back on workers. Of course, as the USPS grew, so did its ranks of employees. 2) The fast death of your friendly neighborhood mailman Since 2012, the postal service has closed 141 facilities as part of a cost-cutting strategy it calls a "network rationalization plan." While the USPS had planned on cutting more than 3,600 offices as of 2011, it eventually decided to instead slash hours at rural offices. As of 2013, the total number of post offices stood at 26,670. So while the USPS closes post offices today due to shrinking revenues and postal service usage, the decline in post offices has been going on for a century. The number of offices would peak in 1901, at 76,945, then start to decline after that with the advent of rural free delivery, which eliminated the need for many offices. In this video from data visualization pro Derek Watkins, you can watch the post office grow from 75 offices in 1789 to nearly 77,000 in 1900. The US post office underwent some fantastic growth in its early years. ![]()
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