USPS Was Supposed to Break Even by 2023, Instead Lost $6.5B

The US Postal Service launched a 10-year plan in 2021 that was supposed to see it breaking even by 2023 and turning a profit by 2024. Well, the 2023 fiscal year is over, and USPS just reported it lost $6.5 billion in the 12 months that ended September 30, CBS News reports. Compared to the 2022 fiscal year, revenue fell $321 million, or 0.4%, to $78.2 billion, and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy acknowledged that the USPS will not break even by next fiscal year, Reuters reports. Part of the problem: $2.6 billion in inflation costs "above what we projected and what we were able to recover," DeJoy said. "We are not happy with this result."

DeJoy also pointed out, however, that when the 10-year plan was launched, the postal service's projected losses over the next decade were $160 billion, and that amount has since been reduced to less than $60 billion. Another big problem? First-class mail has dropped to its lowest volume since 1968. Mail volume across the country fell nearly 9% over the past year. Some critics blamed part of the postal service's 10-year plan—a series of hikes to the postage rates—for the decreased mail volume. Rates are likely to go up again in January, for the fifth time since 2021, to 68 cents for a letter. (More US Postal Service stories.)