AI exposure: Postal Service Clerks
Perform any combination of tasks in a United States Postal Service (USPS) post office, such as receive letters and parcels; sell postage and revenue stamps, postal cards, and stamped envelopes; fill out and sell money orders; place mail in pigeon holes of mail rack or in bags; and examine mail for correct postage. Includes postal service clerks employed by USPS contractors.
Reading this score
computed38.4% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Postal Service Clerks at the 68th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 2.3 out of 4 on what a current system can produce, and the frictions that hold other jobs in place are comparatively weak here.
No single friction dominates this occupation. The strongest is embodiment at 1.29 out of 3 and the weakest is presence at 0.71, which is a narrow spread. Where nothing structural stands in the way, exposure tracks capability almost directly, and capability is the thing that changes every quarter.
The most exposed thing this job does is Check mail to ensure correct postage and that packages and letters are in proper condition for..., at 80.0%. The least is Feed mail into postage canceling devices or hand stamp mail to cancel postage, at 0.0%. A gap of 80.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within office and administrative support occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 55.9% across the group's 51 roles, with 43 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 19 tasks, 14 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 5 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take capability alone, since there is little structural friction here to slow adoption once a system can do the work. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Task by task
19 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Check mail to ensure correct postage and that packages and letters are in proper condition for mailing. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 4.48 | exposed |
| Order retail items and other supplies for office use. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.74 | exposed |
| Respond to complaints regarding mail theft, delivery problems, and lost or damaged mail, filling out forms and making appropriate referrals for investigation. | 67.1% | 20.4% | 12.5% | 4.32 | exposed |
| Keep money drawers in order, and record and balance daily transactions. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.62 | exposed |
| Obtain signatures from recipients of registered or special delivery mail. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.32 | exposed |
| Answer questions regarding mail regulations and procedures, postage rates, and post office boxes. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.28 | exposed |
| Complete forms regarding changes of address, or theft or loss of mail, or for special services such as registered or priority mail. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.44 | exposed |
| Weigh letters and parcels, compute mailing costs based on type, weight, and destination, and affix correct postage. | 43.3% | 6.7% | 50.0% | 4.63 | exposed |
| Provide assistance to the public in complying with federal regulations of Postal Service and other federal agencies. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.25 | exposed |
| Provide customers with assistance in filing claims for mail theft, or lost or damaged mail. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.09 | exposed |
| Cash money orders. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.75 | exposed |
| Register, certify, and insure letters and parcels. | 31.7% | 18.3% | 50.0% | 4.45 | exposed |
| Rent post office boxes to customers. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.19 | exposed |
| Sell and collect payment for products such as stamps, prepaid mail envelopes, and money orders. | 28.3% | 21.7% | 50.0% | 4.66 | exposed |
| Sort incoming and outgoing mail, according to type and destination, by hand or by operating electronic mail-sorting and scanning devices. | 20.0% | 5.0% | 75.0% | 4.41 | untouched |
| Receive letters and parcels, and place mail into bags. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.34 | untouched |
| Transport mail from one work station to another. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.20 | untouched |
| Put undelivered parcels away, retrieve them when customers come to claim them, and complete any related documentation. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.34 | untouched |
| Feed mail into postage canceling devices or hand stamp mail to cancel postage. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.78 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 2.29 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.29 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.71 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.79 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.26 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.92 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Where most of a role's weighted task load is exposed, the work that survives is usually the part of the job nobody wrote into the job description: deciding what should be produced rather than producing it, and being answerable for the result. The tasks lowest on this page are a better guide to where to spend your time than any general advice about the future of work.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.