20-Year Prospect
Isn't technology awesome? We've got instant mail delivery, super convenient online bill pay, and discount sites to make sure we never again need to sort through our junk mail to find coupons. Wait, who's that crying in the corner over there? This is supposed to be a happy occasion. Oh, it's the United States Postal Service. Awkward.
Since 2007, the USPS has suffered $51.7 bu-bu-bu-billion in losses (source). Ouch. But it's not like they aren't trying. They try to lower wages, they hit union disputes. They try to cut down delivery dates in reaction to handling less mail, but the government says, "nuh-uh." It's not a pretty picture.
But don't just take our word for it; the Bureau of Labor Statistics (who are even sort of on USPS's team, what with being a government group and all) predicts a 28% drop in postal worker jobs by 2022 alone (source). That means 139,000 fewer people handling your envelopes.
No one knows what comes next for the postal system, but at least for now, our 1980s fortune telling arcade machine is saying "ask again later."