USPS lost $9.3 billion on operations in FY2025 — while cutting its workforce by 29,000 since 2021
Summary
The Postal Service's FY2025 revenue of $80.5 billion fell $9.3 billion short of its $89.8 billion in expenses, its second straight $9 billion-plus net loss. Total employment has fallen from 653,000 in 2021 to 624,000 in 2025, even as roughly 10,500 workers took a $167 million early-retirement buyout in 2025 alone. The losses haven't stabilized: USPS's first quarter of FY2026 swung from a $144 million profit a year earlier to a $1.3 billion loss.
Follow the gap
doesn't have a single missing dollar problem — it has a structural gap between what it collects and what it costs to run.
View data as table
| FY2025 revenue | $80.5B | +1.2% vs. FY2024 |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 expenses | $89.8B | operating expenses |
brought in $80.5 billion in FY2025, up 1.2% from the prior year, and spent $89.8 billion running the operation — a $9.3 billion gap, close to the $9.0 billion net loss the agency reported once non-operating items are included. That loss came even as mail volume fell 3.3% and package revenue grew: First-Class Mail volume dropped 2.2 billion pieces (5.0%) while its revenue rose 1.5%, and Shipping and Packages revenue rose 1.0% despite a 5.7% drop in package volume — rate increases outrunning volume losses, not covering them. The losses haven't leveled off: 's first quarter of FY2026 swung from $144 million in net income a year earlier to a $1.3 billion net loss, before its second quarter improved year-over-year, from a $3.3 billion loss to a $2.0 billion loss.
The same system, counted in employees
has spent the years since 2021 trying to shrink its way toward balance. The headcount moved. The deficit mostly didn't.
View data as table
| FY2021 | 653,000 | total employees |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | 624,000 | total employees |
Total employment fell from 653,000 in FY2021 to 624,000 in FY2025 — about 29,000 fewer positions — even as the number of career employees within that total actually rose, from 516,500 to 531,000, as the Delivering for America plan converted pre-career positions (which have higher turnover and recruiting costs) into career roles. Nearly 10,500 employees took a voluntary early-retirement offer in 2025 alone, at a cost to of about $167 million in payments and associated payroll taxes. Postmaster General testimony to Congress has not ruled out involuntary layoffs, and five-day-a-week delivery — cutting one of the six current delivery days — has reportedly been discussed as a cost-cutting option as warns lawmakers it is running low on cash.
The takeaway
- Five years of workforce cuts didn't close the gap. Employment fell by roughly 29,000 since 2021, and still lost more than $9 billion in both FY2024 and FY2025 — headcount was never the whole problem.
- Rate increases are outrunning volume, not fixing the deficit. Revenue rose in every major mail category even as volume fell in every one of them — pricing power alone hasn't been enough to close a $9.3 billion operating gap.
- The trend is not stabilizing — it's swinging. A $144 million profit in Q1 FY2025 became a $1.3 billion loss in Q1 FY2026, the kind of swing that makes "the losses are leveling off" hard to say with a straight face.
Financial figures are 's own reported results by fiscal year and quarter; workforce figures are -end totals as reported by and covered by Federal News Network. Figures are subject to revision in 's own subsequent reporting.
Sources
- Newsroom — "U.S. Postal Service Reports Fiscal Year 2025 Results" — FY2025 revenue, expenses, net loss, and mail-volume-by-category figures. about.usps.com
- Newsroom — "U.S. Postal Service Reports First Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Results" — the Q1 FY2026 net loss and year-over-year comparison. about.usps.com
- Newsroom — "U.S. Postal Service Reports Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Results" — the Q2 FY2026 net loss and year-over-year comparison. about.usps.com
- Federal News Network — 's FY2021-2025 total and career employment figures, and the shift toward career positions under the Delivering for America plan. federalnewsnetwork.com
- Federal News Network — Postmaster General testimony on potential layoffs and the possibility of cutting delivery days as 's cash position tightens. federalnewsnetwork.com
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The Postal Service has spent five years cutting its own headcount while its losses stayed roughly the same size. That combination — a smaller workforce and an unchanged deficit — is the clearest evidence that 's problem was never primarily about how many people it employs.