From postage to envelopes, there are many components to the mail service in the United States. And even though more and more communications are happening frequently through online messaging platforms like email and various social media sites, the United States mail service is still hugely relevant all throughout the country. From packages to bills to letters, getting our mail is such a normal part of our lives that we often don’t think consciously of its significance, and off all of the hard work that helps to make it happen.

From certified mailing labels to print postage, there are more components that keep the mail service functioning in the way that it does than many of us consciously realize. And it takes a good deal of skilled and experienced workers to make that happen. What many people do not realize is that the mail service in the United States employs a large number of American residents, and is an important source of jobs. In 2016, statistics showed that there were a total of more than four thousand and two hundred first line transportation supervisors as well as vehicle operators. These are the people who make sure that the mail you need gets to where you are. They are your neighborhood mail person and the delivery person who drops off any larger packages that you may have ordered. And though are a crucial part of the mail service in the United States (and in many places outside of it), they do not fill the only important role when it comes to mail.

In fact, far from it. Mail sorters, processors and those employees that man the processing machines make up more than one hundred and ten thousand employees of the United States postal office. They often supervise everything from postage to the sorting of mail, playing an important and even crucial role in the shipment of mail. And when it comes to postal mail carriers, the people who deliver mail right to your mailbox, there are more than three hundred thousand of them, rain or shine, snow or sleet, getting the mail to their final destination. In total, there are more than half a million people who are currently employed by the United States postal service.

And physical mail and postage is still far more popular than many people give it credit for, thriving even now in the midst of our digital age where the world is inundated with technology and more plentiful methods of communication than ever before. More than one hundred and forty nine million pieces of mail and the accompanying postage are processed in just one year in the United States, and there are more than a total of twenty six thousand busy and bustling post offices.

If you are interested in mailing something – as the vast majority of us are at some point in our lives – it is important to know the basics of mailing in the United States. First of all, postage is key. Without postage – often simply in the form of a stamp – it is unlikely that your piece of mail will be successfully sent where you want it to go. And fortunately, postage is far from expensive. The typical stamped (a form of postage) postcard cost only around thirty five cents at the beginning of 2018 and the postage for a letter cost only around fifty cents at that same time.

In the United States, all facets of the mail service are still incredibly important, from postage to the people who are employed by it.