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Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators

Prepare incoming and outgoing mail for distribution for the United States Postal Service (USPS). Examine, sort, and route mail. Load, operate, and occasionally adjust and repair mail processing, sorting, and canceling machinery. Keep records of shipments, pouches, and sacks, and perform other duties related to mail handling within the postal service. Includes postal service mail sorters and processors employed by USPS contractors.

What you’d do

  • Clear jams in sorting equipment.
  • Operate various types of equipment, such as computer scanning equipment, addressographs, mimeographs, optical character readers, and bar-code sorters.
  • Sort odd-sized mail by hand, sort mail that other workers have been unable to sort, and segregate items requiring special handling.

Skills that matter

  • Monitoring
  • Coordination
  • Critical Thinking
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Speaking
  • Active Listening

How to get there

Little to some preparation: usually a high school diploma or GED, though some jobs do not need one

Also called

  • Automation Clerk
  • Distribution Clerk
  • Mail Handler
  • Mail Processor
  • Computer Forwarding System Markup Clerk (CFS Markup Clerk)
  • Flat Sorting Machine Clerk (FSM Clerk)

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