Postal Service Mail Carriers

Sort and deliver mail for the United States Postal Service (USPS).

Sector: Government
Preparation: Zone 2 — some preparation needed
O*NET code: 43-5052.00

What you'll actually do

The activities O*NET rates highest for this occupation, most important first. Numbers are out of 100.

Operating Vehicles, Mechanized Devices, or Equipment

a major part of the work — rated 80/100 for importance.
Performing General Physical Activities

a major part of the work — rated 77/100 for importance.
Handling and Moving Objects

a major part of the work — rated 74/100 for importance.
Getting Information

a regular part of the work — rated 62/100 for importance.
Performing for or Working Directly with the Public

a regular part of the work — rated 62/100 for importance.
Communicating with People Outside the Organization

a regular part of the work — rated 59/100 for importance.

Sort and deliver mail for the United States Postal Service (USPS). Deliver mail on established route by vehicle or on foot. Includes postal service mail carriers employed by USPS contractors.

What it takes

Two numbers per line: the level the work expects, and how important it is to doing the job well. Both are O*NET ratings, already on a 0–100 scale.

Skills

Active Listening

Needed at a basic working level (43/100), and rated 50/100 for importance.
Critical Thinking

Needed at a basic working level (39/100), and rated 50/100 for importance.
Social Perceptiveness

Needed at a basic working level (39/100), and rated 50/100 for importance.
Speaking

Needed at a basic working level (39/100), and rated 50/100 for importance.
Time Management

Needed at a basic working level (34/100), and rated 47/100 for importance.

Knowledge

Customer and Personal Service

Needed at a high level (67/100), and rated 81/100 for importance.
English Language

Needed at a basic working level (43/100), and rated 56/100 for importance.
Public Safety and Security

Needed at a basic working level (41/100), and rated 55/100 for importance.
Sales and Marketing

Needed at a basic working level (42/100), and rated 54/100 for importance.

Abilities

Near Vision

Needed at a basic working level (43/100), and rated 53/100 for importance.
Information Ordering

Needed at a basic working level (41/100), and rated 53/100 for importance.
Oral Comprehension

Needed at a solid working level (52/100), and rated 50/100 for importance.
Category Flexibility

Needed at a basic working level (43/100), and rated 50/100 for importance.

How people get in

O*NET places this occupation in Zone 2 — some preparation needed. That is a statement about what employers typically require, not a rule about you.

Education

A high-school diploma is the usual starting point.

Experience

Some prior work experience helps but is rarely required.

Training

Expect a few months to a year of on-the-job training.

How the work tends to run

Each line below is read off a single O*NET activity rating for this occupation — named, so you can disagree with it.

The work is physical — you are on your feet and handling things, not sitting still.From “Performing General Physical Activities”
You run equipment, and running it well is a skill in itself.From “Controlling Machines and Processes”

How FlightWay scores your fit against this

No black box. Here is the whole method, factor by factor.

1. You answer a short quiz: Your answers build a profile across the same 161 O*NET dimensions this page is describing — skills, knowledge, abilities and work activities. Same axes, so the comparison is like-for-like.
2. We correlate the two profiles: Fit is a mean-centered cosine — a correlation between the SHAPE of your profile and the shape of Postal Service Mail Carriers. Centering matters: raw similarity between any two occupations sits at 0.70–0.85 because all work shares a common profile, so without it every career would look like a match.
3. The number you see is personality fit only: "Would I want this work" and "am I ready for this work" are different questions, and averaging them answers neither. So readiness — what your résumé, coursework and projects prove — is scored separately and shown next to fit, never blended into it.
4. Every factor is visible: You can open any match and see which dimensions pushed it up and which pulled it down. If you disagree with the number, you can see exactly where it came from.

More in Government

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Occupational data on this page comes from the O*NET 30.3 Database, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). O*NET is a registered trademark of USDOL/ETA. FlightWay is not endorsed by, and USDOL/ETA is not responsible for, anything built on that data — see our terms. What is ours is the comparison, the score and the plan.