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Public service · Helping & Teaching

Postal clerk: what the job actually is

Serving the counter at a post office, or sorting and handling mail and parcels behind it, for one of the country's best-known employers.

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Postal clerk: quick facts

Postal clerk salary in Ontario: the median pay is $22.68 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024). Its three-year outlook in Ontario is moderate. The job usually needs a high school diploma, or several weeks of on-the-job training.

Median pay in Ontario
$22.68 an hour
Pay range (low to high)
$17.95 to $30.36 an hour
Job outlook, 2025-2027
Moderate
People working in it in Ontario
4,700
Usually needs
Usually a high school diploma, or several weeks of on-the-job training

Source: Job Bank wages (updated 19 November 2025) and job prospects (updated 10 December 2025), NOC 64401. Pay varies by region and experience.

The work

What this job actually is

  • Job Bank's group, Postal services representatives, covers people who work at postal counters and in mail processing. Its example titles include parcel post clerk.
  • At the counter the work is weighing items, selling stamps and services, taking payments and answering questions about forms and rules. Behind the counter it is sorting and handling mail and parcels.
  • Canada Post's own jobs page says its jobs include postal clerks, retail positions, couriers, delivery agents and supervisory roles, and that many jobs are unionized and offered as full-time, part-time or temporary shifts.
  • Job Bank says this occupation is not regulated in Canada. It lists on-the-job training and says completion of secondary school, and some college office administration courses, may be required.
  • The page is a group description, not a promise of a hiring pattern. Job Bank's outlook for this group is Moderate and says employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions.

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

  1. 7:30 — Clock in at the plant or the post office, and find out which role you are covering today.
  2. 8:00 — Counter: open the till, check stamps and forms, and wait for the first line.
  3. 9:00 — Somebody needs to send a parcel and has not packed it, labelled it, or decided how fast they want it. You walk them through it.
  4. 10:30 — A customer is angry about a delay that was not caused at your counter. You explain what you can see on the tracking and what you cannot.
  5. 12:00 — Lunch break, on the schedule, whether or not the line is long.
  6. 13:00 — Back-room task: sort a delivery of parcels by route or destination and check labels.
  7. 15:00 — Counting the till, reconciling the day and logging problems.
  8. 16:00 — Close the counter or hand over to the next shift. You answer one more question at the door.
  9. 16:30 — Out. The queue ended when the doors closed, which is a relief.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

You may like this if
  • You are patient with questions you have answered fifty times, and you give the same clear answer every time.
  • You like jobs with rules and forms where you are the person who knows them.
  • You want a public employer and may be interested in a unionized workplace.
  • You are accurate with money and labels.
  • You can stay friendly when the line is long.
You may hate this if
  • You dislike being the face of a system that people are cross about, like delays and prices.
  • Standing and lifting for a full shift is a problem. Job Bank notes that physical fitness may be needed depending on duties.
  • You want a growing field. Job Bank's outlook says employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions.
  • Shift work, including weekends or early starts, would make your life harder.
  • Repeating the same scripted explanations all day wears you down.

The route in

How you actually get there in Ontario

  1. No licence, but check what employers ask

    Job Bank says this occupation is not regulated in Canada and that secondary school, and some college office administration courses, may be required. It lists on-the-job training. Read each posting, because requirements change with the role and the employer.

  2. Apply through Canada Post's careers site, or the employer's

    Canada Post's job-search page says you can search for openings by job area, keyword, location, job title or business function, and that postings on Indeed and LinkedIn send you to its careers site to apply. It does not describe the tests or screening steps, so I cannot say what they are.

  3. Know the age rule

    Ontario's minimum-age page sets age 14 for stores and offices, and 15 for factories and warehouses, among other places, and says an employer cannot employ a child under 16 during school hours. Ask the employer, because federal employers may have their own hiring rules, and I did not find an official page on those.

  4. Use it as a base, or as a step

    Some people move from counter work into supervision, or into a different public-service job. The administrative assistant and receptionist pages describe nearby office routes. For the post office itself, ask current employees what moves are possible.

Where this comes from: Job Bank — Postal services representatives requirements (Ontario) · Canada Post — Searching for a job · Ontario — Minimum age for work

The money

Postal clerk salary in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$17.95
Low (hourly)
$22.68
Median (hourly)
$30.36
High (hourly)

Ontario, NOC 64401. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.

Source: Job Bank — Postal clerk wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Moderate3 out of 5 stars

  • Employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions.
  • Several positions will become available due to retirements.
  • There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

4,700
people work in this job in Ontario
66%
are women (48% across all jobs)
5%
are self-employed (15% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Postal services representatives job prospects in Ontario (NOC 64401). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

  • Take a co-op placement in a service job, like a shop counter or an office, where you deal with the public and money.
  • Practise explaining something with steps to a person who does not know it, because that is what the counter is.
  • Volunteer at a school or community event with a cash or information table.
  • Go to Canada Post's careers site and read three real postings from end to end. See which requirements repeat.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Read the postings, then run a counter at home

About 60 minutes
  1. Go to Canada Post's careers site and read three postings for roles at a counter or a plant. Write down the duties, the shift patterns and the requirements each one names.
  2. Find a real service with rules, like a library card, a bus pass or a school form, and write out the steps to get one in plain language.
  3. Explain those steps out loud to a family member who pretends not to know, and have them interrupt with a wrong assumption twice.
  4. Write down whether you stayed patient, and which part of the three postings you would find hardest.

What it tells you. If the postings sounded like work you could do and explaining felt fine even with the interruptions, a public-service counter job may fit and is worth a conversation with someone in it. If you got irritated by the second interruption, that is the daily texture of the job, and worth knowing first.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

  1. “What is the split between counter and back-room work in your role?”
  2. “What do customers get angriest about, and what can you actually do about it?”
  3. “How does scheduling work: how are shifts assigned, and how far ahead do you know them?”
  4. “What was the training like when you started?”
  5. “Where have people from your role moved to?”
  6. “What would you tell a student who was thinking about this?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

Not as a postal clerk, which is an employee job. Postal clerk skills, like weighing, labelling and explaining shipping, do transfer to running a small shipping or mailbox-style service, but I did not find an official source on how those businesses are set up, so check that yourself.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this job

How much does a postal clerk make in Ontario?

The median pay for a postal clerk in Ontario is $22.68 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024, updated 19 November 2025). The range Job Bank publishes runs from $17.95 to $30.36 an hour. Pay varies by region, employer and experience.

What is the job outlook for a postal clerk in Ontario?

Job Bank rates the employment outlook for this work in Ontario as moderate for 2025-2027 (updated 10 December 2025). Employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions. Several positions will become available due to retirements. There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation. A lower rating means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hiring.

What do you need to become a postal clerk in Ontario?

Job Bank says this work usually needs a high school diploma, or several weeks of on-the-job training. The usual route in Ontario, in order: No licence, but check what employers ask; Apply through Canada Post's careers site, or the employer's; Know the age rule.

How many people work as a postal clerk in Ontario, and how many are women?

Job Bank counts about 4,700 people working in this job in Ontario. 66% of them are women, compared with 48% across all jobs. That describes who does the work today, not who can.

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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.