US Postal Service on Thursday Said Its annual losses swelled to nearly $10 billion, although revenues increased slightly after two postage rate increases this year, which were in part driven by Postmaster Louis DeJoy. Plan Bringing the postal agency to a better financial position.
USPS said it lost $9.5 billion in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $6.5 billion a year earlier. The Postal Service attributed the widespread losses to billions spent on non-cash contributions to employee compensation.
Excluding that expense as well as what it described as other “certain expenses that cannot be controlled by management,” the USPS said it would lose $1.8 billion in fiscal year 2024, a year after The loss was previously estimated at more than $2.2 billion. Revenue rose 1.7% to $79.5 billion in the most recent fiscal year.
The USPS is in the midst of a 10-year overhaul engineered by DeJoy, who has argued that higher postage rates and other changes are necessary to stem the Postal Service's financial bleeding. Under its original plan, the USPS had Objective to turn a profit in fiscal year 2024, but instead, the agency has now reported increasing deficit For two years running, questions have been raised about the effectiveness of the change effort.
DeJoy said the agency is focusing on reducing its costs, but it is also dealing with “a number of economic, legislative and regulatory hurdles for us to overcome.”
USPS is raising postage rates twice in 2024, with a two-cent increase per stamp January and one second Increase In July, that raised the price of the Forever Stamp to 73 cents.
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The USPS said mail volume declined in the most recent fiscal year, although revenue increased due to higher postage rates. A financial report said it delivered 112 billion pieces of mail, magazines, packages and other items last year, a 3.2% decline from the previous fiscal year.
Keep US Posted, an advocacy group of newspapers, magazines and other companies that rely on the USPS, called the agency's $9.5 billion loss “shocking” and said it was $3 billion more than expected. The group also blamed the rate increases for driving customers away from the USPS and reducing mail volume.
Kevin Yoder, executive director of Keep US Posted, said, “The bottom line is that these continued financial losses are caused by stamp hikes, which are causing devastating mail volume losses, as well as a disruption in the parcel market in an already crowded package delivery space. “There is a complete failure of the USPS to capture the stakes.” In a statement.
Yoder, a former Republican congressman from Kansas, also criticized the USPS for focusing on packages rather than traditional mail delivery, which he said remains the largest revenue generator for the Postal Service.