A person mailing a letter at a mailbox in New York City
You might not have noticed but the price of mailing a first-class letter in the United States went up by 3 cents on Sunday.
The increase was the third price hike in the last 12 months and the 17th since the year 2000. It is also the increase that comes in the shortest interval since a prior increase in the history of the Postal Service.
In the period 2007 through 2023, first-class and marketing mail volume fell by 42%, a 2.4% compounded annual drop. For the first four months of the Postal Service’s fiscal year 2023, volume is down by 5.6%.
Every year, fewer and fewer people write letters that they then post, and more and more people are paying bills and sending physical thank-you cards.
Postal rates last went up in January and, before that, in July 2022 and August 2021.
The cost to send a letter by certified mail and to insure packages also went up.
When it announced the increase in April, the Postal Service said it was to “offset the rise in inflation” and the increase was needed “to address continued elevated inflation and prior years defective pricing model.”
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
