Stamped: 12 billion holiday letters and packages

Stamped: 12 billion holiday letters and packages  

11.04.2024

Preparing for peak postal season

You’ve got mail – and the United States Postal Service (USPS) is making billions of special deliveries in the last quarter of the year with a higher-than-usual volume of packages and letters arriving across the U.S.1 In 2022, the USPS processed nearly 12 billion letters and packages during the holiday season.2

This year, the USPS is speeding forward with $40 billion of operational improvements through its Delivering for America plan.3 The 10-year transformation includes upgrading the network’s delivery vehicles and increasing daily package processing capacity to around 60 million. In the 2023 fiscal year, the USPS saw sales for its shipping and packaging category increase by $324 million.4

The USPS and others in the distribution industry are also building up their workforces to help ensure efficiency. USPS is aiming to hire 7,500 seasonal employees, while UPS and Amazon are recruiting 125,000 and 250,000 seasonal associates, respectively.3,5,6 Temporary and part-time jobs delivering holiday packages may be appealing to the quarter of Americans (and 33% of Gen Z) who planned on getting a second job in 2024 to boost their income, or to the 58% who are open to working post-retirement.

The price of postage

During the entirety of the 20th century, the price of a first-class stamp for 1 ounce of mail increased 17 times; but in just a few decades of the 21st century the cost has gone up by at least that many times already.7,8 In fact, from January 2021 through January 2024, the rate for a first-class stamp increased five times, with plans to raise costs an additional five times through 2027.9,10

Effective date

Postage in cents, per ounce

January 7, 2001

34

June 30, 2002

37

January 8, 2006

39

May 14, 2007

41

May 12, 2008

42

May 11, 2009

44

January 22, 2012

45

January 27, 2013

46

January 26, 2014

49

April 10, 2016

47

January 22, 2017

49

January 21, 2018

50

January 27, 2019

55

August 29, 2021

58

July 10, 2022

60

July 9, 2023

66

January 21, 2024

68 

Source: United States Postal Office, February 20248 

 

Ahead of this peak season, the USPS recently announced holiday surcharges on postage, which are now in effect through mid-January of next year: The smallest rate increase per package will be 30 cents for smaller items, while the highest will be $16 for larger packages, calculated by weight.1

Notes to the North Pole

Each year, the USPS receives millions of letters addressed to Santa Claus from children and their families.11

When the practice first started more than 100 years ago, the notes were set aside.12 In 1912, Operation Santa officially began, through which postal employees read and responded to the letters. The program opened to the public in the 1940s, allowing charitable groups, businesses, and all people to respond and opt to help fulfill wishes. Since then, the program has gone digital and anyone within the country can now help spread holiday cheer.12

While announcing this year’s Operation Santa program, which started on September 16, the USPS also unveiled a new partnership with Toys “R” Us to help simplify the process of adopting a letter and purchasing a gift.13 The collaboration will provide adopters with a special website of curated gifts that they can easily purchase. More than half (57%) of Americans shop for holiday presents online, according to the National Retail Federation.14

1 CNET, “Early Holiday Shopping? Beware Rising Postage Costs,” October 2024.

2 United States Postal Service, “Delivering for America: Second-Year Progress Report,” April 2023.

3 United States Postal Service, “Postal Service Ready to Deliver for 2024 Holiday Season,” October 2024.

4 United States Postal Service, “U.S. Postal Service Reports Fiscal Year 2023 Results,” November 2023.

5 USA Today, “Santa's helpers: UPS announces over 125,000 openings in holiday hiring blitz,” September 2024.

6 Retail Dive, “Amazon wants to hire 250K for the holidays again,” October 2024.

7 Fast Company, “Stamps are going up again: Here’s how much USPS prices have been hiked by year since 1885,” July 2023.

8 United States Postal Service, “Rates for Domestic Letters Since 1863,” February 2024.

9 NPR, “The Forever Stamp just went up in price. How does the U.S. cost compare globally?” July 2024.

10 CNN, “The Post Office wants stamp prices to rise five times over the next three years,” September 2024.

11 Business Insider, “Here's what actually happens to letters addressed to Santa at the North Pole,” December 2023.

12 USPS Operation Santa, “About,” 2024.

13 Newsweek, US Postal Service Updates 'Operation Santa' Tradition,” September 2024.

14 National Retail Federation, “2024 Holiday Spending Expected to Reach New Record,” October 2024.

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