How To Become A Postal Clerk: What It Is and Career Path

What is a postal clerk and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

A postal clerk or mail clerk's primary responsibilities include selling postal materials such as stamps, postcards, envelopes and sorting and preparing mail for delivery. You are expected to properly label, manage and sort out outgoing mail or packages into categories for easy delivery. Also, your job requires you to forward misdirected mail, keep concise records of all incoming mail and packages, and ensure concerned parties sign off on delivered mail. In addition, you are to notify the proper party about packages that could not be delivered and handle questions and complaints from customers regarding delivery problems, postage rates, and damaged or lost mail.

You need just a high school diploma to get a job as a postal clerk. Also, you must possess excellent organizational, interpersonal and verbal communication skills. You must be able to pay attention to detail and have basic knowledge of computer usage. The average yearly salary is $39,111 or $19 per hour.

ScorePostal ClerkUS Average

Salary

3.0

Avg. Salary $38,239

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.3

Growth Rate -6%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.30%

Asian 10.64%

Black or African American 15.64%

Hispanic or Latino 14.58%

Unknown 3.83%

White 55.01%

Gender

female 52.81%

male 47.19%

Age - 54

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 54

Stress Level

7.3

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

7.0

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

6.7

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Newest jobs for Postal Clerk in Scotch Plains, NJ

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Key steps to become a postal clerk

Explore postal clerk education requirements

Most common postal clerk degrees

Bachelor's

35.6 %

High School Diploma

26.2 %

Associate

23.4 %

Start to develop specific postal clerk skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	24.13%
Postal Service	20.43%
Postage Rates	11.37%
ZIP Codes	4.48%
USPS	4.40%

Complete relevant postal clerk training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New postal clerks learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a postal clerk based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real postal clerk resumes.

Research postal clerk duties and responsibilities

Manage $24K official mail account, expertly track expenditures ultimately saving the DoD $1K with little to no supervision.
Maintain cleanliness of the company warehouse, operate warehouse machinery and organize the warehouse to ensure proper product placement.
Assist with various duties including spreadsheet development, payroll information and data population.

Prepare your postal clerk resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your postal clerk resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a postal clerk resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Postal Clerk Resume templates

Build a professional Postal Clerk resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Postal Clerk resume.

Apply for postal clerk jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a postal clerk job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

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