WASHINGTON–Today, the Postal Service (USPS) released its FY 2024 Results. The numbers show USPS largely treading water and in serious need of congressional intervention.
Unfortunately, FY 2024 USPS losses were much the same as FY 2023. While overall losses ballooned nearly 50% from FY ’23 to $9.5 billion from $6.5 billion, much of the growth in financial loss was from uncontrollable mandates, chiefly due to higher non-cashworkers’ compensation expenses. Losses from operational factors under USPS control, i.e. were $1.8 billion in FY 2024, down from over $2.2 billion year-over-year. Overall, roughly 80% of the USPS’s net loss this year is due to factors beyond management’s control, mainly from unfunded retiree pension liabilities and non-cash expenses. At the same time, it lost another 4 billion pieces, some 3.5% of its total business.
“Non-operational costs, such as unfunded pensions and workers compensation, continue to overload the system, hindering USPS’ financial performance and implementation of its internal modernization effort, the Delivering for America Plan (DFA), while its business continues to melt down as prices are raised unaffordably and service standards are slowed and still not met” stated Art Sackler, Executive Director of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service. “Congress must act with all deliberate speed to avoid insolvency for USPS later this decade, while pricing, service and more push still more mailers out of the system. We agree, however, with Postal Board Chairman Roman Martinez IV and Postmaster General Louis Dejoy’s view that Congress must expand USPS retiree health and pension funds’ investment options to achieve a higher rate of return, and also enable the return of more than $100 billion in Postal Service overpayments to the Civil Service Retirement System. Modernization of the Postal Regulatory Commission’s authority should also be considered”
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About Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service: C21 consists of business mailing associations and companies – newspapers, magazines, advertisers, catalogers, e-commerce, parcels, greeting cards, financial services, telecommunications, insurance, small businesses of every kind, paper, printing, technology, envelope manufacturing, mail services, who understand the essential role of USPS and want it sustained for the future. It broadly represents an industry generating $1.9 trillion in sales and supporting 7.9 million private sector jobs. Learn more at www.21stcenturypostal.org.
