How many employees work for the U.S. Postal Service?

As of Jan. 21, 2014, the U.S. Postal Service employed 489,727 career employees and 137,037 noncareer employees. These employees work in 31,135 post offices spread across the United States and typically handle 40 percent of the world's mail in a given year.

The U.S. Postal Service delivers mail to 153 million addresses, making it the largest post service in the world. The mailing industry overall, including private mail carriers, was worth over $1.3 trillion and employed over 8.4 million people as of 2012. The U.S. Postal Service would have ranked at the 45th spot on the Forbes 500 as of 2013 if it were a private-sector company.