In the European Union (EU), 1.8 million people were employed in postal services in 2018. This is equivalent to almost 1% of total EU employment. ‘Postal services’ include postal and courier activities, such as the pickup, transport and delivery of letters and parcels.
Almost 1.1 million of those employed were men, representing 60% of the total labour force of this sector.
In 2018, at EU level, on average 42 people per 10 000 inhabitants were working in the postal services sector. This is a decrease of 12.5% from 2008 (48 people per 10 000 inhabitants).
The source dataset is accessible here (employment) and here (population).
When compared with the size of the population, the United Kingdom (61 people employed in postal services per 10 000 inhabitants), Czechia (60) and Slovakia (58), ahead of Hungary (55), Slovenia (52) and Germany (51) recorded the highest rates of people employed in postal services.
The source dataset is accessible here (employment) and here (population).
In contrast, the lowest rates were recorded in Portugal (16), Greece and Cyprus* (both 17), followed by Lithuania (24), Spain (27) and Romania (28).
* Low reliability.
Note: In this news item we refer to ‘postal and courier activities’ as classified under the Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE), code H53.
This information is published to mark the occasion of World Post Day (9 October).
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