![]() ![]() ![]() There were 35.6 billion of those last year, or more than five per household per week. ![]() The number of individual First-Class letters doesn’t count most of the other mail jamming your mailbox, such as bank statements and other direct mail from businesses. The number of individual letters mailed last year fell 8.4% from the year prior, and is down 45% from where it was just a decade ago, in fiscal year 2011. People have found other ways to communicate - and to pay their bills - than putting a stamp and an envelope and dropping it in a mailbox. But that comes to only about two pieces of mail per US household per week. Last year 13.5 billion letters were mailed out. As a result, First-Class mail in general - and individual letters in particular - are far less important to the Postal Services’ revenue stream now than in years past. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Imagesīiden signs US Postal Service reform bill into lawīut the 2-cent hike won’t bring in much more money for the USPS for one reason: Americans aren’t sending nearly as much mail as they used to. “With the new prices, the Postal Service will continue to provide the lowest letter-mail postage rates in the industrialized world and offer a great value in shipping.”Ī postman drives a United States Postal service (USPS) mail delivery truck through Washington, DC on August 13, 2021. “As inflation and increased operating expenses continue, these price adjustments will help with the implementation of the Delivering for America plan,” the USPS said in a statement, referring to its plan to invest $40 billion in upgrading its infrastructure. Metered mail went up 4 cents, or 7.5% sending a postcard (remember those?) now costs 44 cents, a 10-cent hike and overweight First-Class mail will increase 20%, to 24 cents per additional ounce. A price hike that modest seems almost quaint given that overall consumer prices are up 9.1% year over year, the fastest pace in 40 years.įirst-Class mail prices are up about 6.5% overall following the latest hikes. That raises the cost of mailing a first-class letter by 3.4%, to 60 cents - unless you still have a bunch of “forever stamps” that you bought at a lower price. Maybe this counts as good news in a time of painful price increases for necessities such as food, fuel and housing: The cost of a US postage stamp just increased by a mere 2 cents. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |