May 22, 2019

On May 10, the Postal Service reported its financial results for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2019 – January, February and March.  The results were very bad – a $2.1 billion loss – in spite of “aggressive management actions” that Postmaster General Megan Brennan said the agency is taking.

Two-thirds of the second quarter included the annual USPS rate increases averaging 2.4 percent.  Those emphasizing larger rate increases as a solution for postal losses were not given solace by this quarter’s results.  Both revenue and volume declined much more in Q2 than year-to-date, in the two main classes and in total market dominant mail.

————————Revenue Q2     Revenue YTD   Volume Q2   Volume YTD

First Class Mail            -3.6%                 -2.3%                -4.1%                 -3.5%

Marketing Mail            -3.8%                +0.8%                -5.1%                +0.1%

Total MD Mail              -3.5%                 -1.2%                 -4.5%                -1.6%

Two weeks before the USPS report, the Commerce Department announced that annualized U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 3.2 percent in the January–March quarter.  Concurrently, USPS mail volume dropped 4.5 percent.