---
title: "Postmaster"
description: "Plan, direct, or coordinate operational, administrative, management, and support services of a U.S. post office; or coordinate activities of workers…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/postmaster"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Postmaster

**Category:** Management · **SOC code:** 11-9131 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 11-9131.00

Plan, direct, or coordinate operational, administrative, management, and support services of a U.S. post office; or coordinate activities of workers engaged in postal and related work in assigned post office.

Also advertised as: Delivery Supervisor; Distribution Operation Supervisor (SDO); Distribution Operations Manager; Distribution Operations Supervisor; Mail Delivery Supervisor; Postal Supervisor; Postmaster; Postmaster Relief (PMR).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $96,660 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $46.47/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $85,090 to $111,740, with the middle half between $90,650 and $102,960
- **Total US employment:** 13,810
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -0.3% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 41/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 13,810 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $85,090 |
| 25th | $90,650 |
| 50th (median) | $96,660 |
| 75th | $102,960 |
| 90th | $111,740 |
| Mean (average) | $97,360 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| FL | $102,880 | $99,484 | 350 |
| PR | $101,580 | No BEA price parity | 90 |
| CA | $101,150 | $91,357 | 800 |
| NJ | $101,100 | $92,919 | 440 |
| RI | $99,900 | $97,673 | 40 |
| TN | $99,170 | $107,946 | 260 |
| HI | $99,070 | $90,104 | 60 |
| AZ | $99,050 | $98,384 | 150 |
| SC | $98,940 | $105,537 | 210 |
| IN | $98,680 | $105,733 | 290 |
| KY | $98,570 | $109,329 | 240 |
| UT | $98,570 | $99,703 | 110 |
| DE | $98,550 | $98,740 | 40 |
| AR | $97,880 | $112,587 | 180 |
| CT | $97,880 | $94,470 | 160 |

36 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 51 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/postmaster/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/postmaster.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 13,300 in the 2025–2035 base year to 13,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 0 jobs, or -0.3%. Declining: -0.3% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 900 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 62.1% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 13.4% |
| Some College Courses | 11.1% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 6.7% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 6.7% |

## What the work involves

- Monitor employees' work schedules and attendance for payroll purposes.
- Prepare employee work schedules.
- Negotiate labor disputes.
- Organize and supervise activities, such as the processing of incoming and outgoing mail.
- Resolve customer complaints.
- Hire and train employees, and evaluate their performance.
- Direct and coordinate operational, management, and supportive services of one or a number of postal facilities.
- Prepare and submit detailed and summary reports of post office activities to designated supervisors.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Administration and Management — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Enterprising (E), Conventional (C), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 6.00 |
| C — Conventional | 5.69 |
| S — Social | 3.35 |
| R — Realistic | 2.14 |
| I — Investigative | 1.30 |
| A — Artistic | 1.17 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 85.1 |
| ESTJ | 84.1 |
| ISFJ | 68.5 |
| ENTJ | 64.6 |
| ENFJ | 64.5 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ, ESTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Postal Service Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/postal-service-clerk) — median $62,130
- [Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/transportation-storage-and-distribution-manager) — median $107,230
- [First-Line Supervisor of Office and Administrative Support Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-office-and-administrative-support-workers) — median $69,500
- [Administrative Services Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/administrative-services-manager) — median $114,130
- [General and Operations Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/general-and-operations-manager) — median $105,770
- [Postal Service Mail Sorter, Processor, and Processing Machine Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/postal-service-mail-sorter-processor-and-processing-machine-operator) — median $58,470
- [First-Line Supervisor of Helpers, Laborers, and Material Movers, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-helpers-laborers-and-material-movers-hand) — median $62,840
- [First-Line Supervisor of Material-Moving Machine and Vehicle Operators](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-material-moving-machine-and-vehicle-operators) — median $62,840
- [First-Line Supervisor of Non-Retail Sales Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-non-retail-sales-workers) — median $87,520
- [First-Line Supervisor of Production and Operating Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-production-and-operating-workers) — median $74,450

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/postmaster