How big is the US Postal Service? Among the largest in business or government

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is running out of cash .

美国邮政服务 (USPS) 的现金即将耗尽。

Since 2007, it has posted net losses nearly every year as letter mail, its core revenue source , has fallen by half .

自2007年以来，该公司几乎每年都出现净亏损，其核心收入来源信件已下降一半。

It has now hit its statutory borrowing limit, and its leadership ha s warned that it could be out of cash within the year, save for extraordinary measures.

该公司现已达到法定借款限额，其领导层警告称，除非采取非常措施，否则该公司可能会在年内耗尽现金。

In Washington, t he debate is no longer about trimming costs at the margin, but about how deeply to restructure the Postal Service’s operations or overhaul its funding model.

在华盛顿，争论不再是关于削减边际成本，而是关于在多大程度上重组邮政服务的运营或彻底改革其融资模式。

Lost in that debate are more basic question s : H ow big is USPS ?

在这场争论中，我们忽略了一些更基本的问题：美国邮政局有多大？

A nd , how much of the economy runs through it ?

还有，有多少经济是通过它运行的？

That reach is a matter of law, not choice.

这种影响是法律问题，而不是选择问题。

USPS is bound by law to a duty that no private company shares: a Universal Service Obligation (USO) that requires it to deliver to every address, six days per week, at uniform and affordable prices.

USPS 受法律约束，承担任何私营公司都无法承担的义务：普遍服务义务 (USO)，要求其每周六天以统一且实惠的价格送货到每个地址。

For millions of households in rural and low-density communities, that guarantee is a lifeline, carrying prescription medications, ballots, online purchases, and the shipments that keep small businesses running.

对于农村和低密度社区的数百万家庭来说，这种保障是一条生命线，提供处方药、选票、网上购物以及维持小企业运转的运输。

Any plan to restructure the Postal Service has to reckon with what it actually is: one of the largest institutions in the American economy.

任何重组邮政服务的计划都必须考虑它的实际情况：美国经济中最大的机构之一。

Its size reflects what the law requires of it, not how it chooses to run.

它的规模反映了法律对其的要求，而不是它选择的运作方式。

Where a private company might scale back or drop the routes that lose money, cutting its workforce, shrinking its fleet, and reducing its footprint until it produces a profit; USPS cannot.

私营公司可能会缩减或放弃亏损的航线、裁员、缩减机队并减少足迹，直到产生利润；美国邮政局不能。

It’s a public operation required by law to reach every address, and its scale is what meeting that requirement takes.

这是法律要求的公共行动，必须到达每个地址，其规模取决于满足该要求所需的规模。

Start with employment.

从就业开始。

With about 600,000 workers, USPS is the third-largest employer in the United States, behind only Walmart and Amazon (Figure 1).

USPS 拥有约 60 万名员工，是美国第三大雇主，仅次于沃尔玛和亚马逊（图 1）。

But this ranking undersells what those jobs are and where they sit.

但这个排名低估了这些工作的内容和位置。

Postal jobs offer middle-class pay and federal benefits, often without requiring a college degree, and they have long been a reliable ladder into the middle class, especially for Black Americans.

邮政工作提供中产阶级工资和联邦福利，通常不需要大学学位，长期以来，邮政工作一直是进入中产阶级的可靠阶梯，特别是对于美国黑人而言。

Nearly 30% of postal workers are Black, more than double their share of the national labor force .

近 30% 的邮政工人是黑人，是其在全国劳动力中所占比例的两倍多。

A workforce of this size means the Postal Service’s finances aren’t only a budget question.

如此规模的员工队伍意味着邮政服务的财务不仅仅是一个预算问题。

They’re also a labor-market question, and the communities with the fewest alternatives have the most at stake.

这也是一个劳动力市场问题，而替代品最少的社区面临的风险最大。

USPS isn’t just large for a private company; it’s also large for a government agency.

USPS 不仅对于一家私营公司来说规模很大，而且对于一家私营公司来说也是如此。对于政府机构来说它也很大。

Only the Department of Defense employs more people, and the Postal Service workforce comes close to the size of Defense’s entire civilian arm (about 685,000 ).

只有国防部雇用了更多的人员，而邮政局的员工数量接近国防部整个文职部门的规模（约 685,000 人）。

The Postal Service’s labor-market footprint reaches well beyond its current payroll.

邮政服务的劳动力市场足迹远远超出了其目前的工资总额。

Alongside the workers on its rolls today, more than 700,000 retirees and survivors draw a USPS pension.

除了今天的员工之外，还有超过 700,000 名退休人员和幸存者领取 USPS 养老金。

Together, well over one million people rely on the Postal Service for their income.

总共有超过一百万人依靠邮政服务获得收入。

The same mandate that carries mail to every address gives USPS more retail locations than any company in the country.

将邮件运送到每个地址的同样规定使得 USPS 的零售地点比美国任何一家公司都多。

Its network of roughly 33,700 post offices outnumbers every private chain, with thousands more locations than Subway or Dollar General, the largest by store count, and more than twice as many as McDonald’s (Figure 2).

其网络由约 33,700 个邮局组成，数量超过所有私营连锁店，比 Subway 或 Dollar General 多数千个，是门店数量最多的公司，也是麦当劳的两倍多（图 2）。

Because these locations exist to serve universal delivery, they reach places private retailers may not serve profitably.

由于这些地点的存在是为了提供普遍配送服务，因此它们到达了私营零售商可能无法盈利的地方。

In many rural communities that have lost bank branches and pharmacies, the post office is often one of the few outlets left.

在许多失去银行分行和药店的农村社区，邮局往往是仅存的少数网点之一。

By revenue, too, USPS runs with the largest private carriers.

从收入来看，美国邮政局也与最大的私营运营商合作。

In fiscal year 2025, it took in $81.4 billion in revenue, on par with FedEx ( $87.9 billion ) and UPS ( $88.7 billion ).

2025 财年，它的收入为 814 亿美元，与联邦快递（879 亿美元）和 UPS（887 亿美元）持平。

But its rivals also build the postal network into their own operations.

但其竞争对手也将邮政网络纳入自己的业务中。

UPS alone hands USPS nearly a million packages a day to finish the last mile, deliveries it cannot make as cheaply itself.

仅 UPS 每天就向 USPS 交付近百万个包裹来完成最后一英里，而其自身的运输成本却无法如此低廉。

USPS is at once a competitor to the private carriers, a service they pay for, and part of the backbone that their own networks run on.

USPS 既是私人运营商的竞争对手，也是他们付费的服务，也是他们自己网络运行的主干网的一部分。

None of this settle s how to fix USPS’s finances.

这些都无法解决如何解决美国邮政局的财务问题。

But it shows what a fix has to account for.

但它显示了修复必须考虑的问题。

The Postal Service is big—but how big matters less than how much depends on it: the post office that remains open in a town that’s lost its bank or pharmacy; the 600,000 people it employs and the 700,000 retirees it supports; the million packages a day it delivers for its own competitors.

邮政服务很大，但大小并不重要，重要的是它的大小取决于它：在一个失去了银行或药房的城镇中，邮局仍然开放；它雇用了 600,000 名员工，并支持了 700,000 名退休人员；它每天为自己的竞争对手运送数百万个包裹。

A plan that balances the books but overlooks all of that has done only part of the job.

一个平衡收支但忽视所有方面的计划只完成了部分工作。