Development of postal services until 2020

Postal service volumes have diminished and the profitability of postal and courier activities has weakened in Finland in recent years. The study evaluates the development of the service volumes, profitability and employment of postal and courier activities until 2020. The distribution volumes of letters and newspapers will continue to decline in the future because of the increasing internet use in communication. This will increase the unit cost of production in postal service activities because the universal service obligation tends to increase the transportation costs of letters in relation to the distribution volumes. The profitability of postal services is not expected to improve until 2020 because the increasing unit costs can hardly be passed on to the producer price of postal services in the future to a greater extent than today. Moreover, the diminishing postal service volumes will lead to decreasing employment in postal and courier activities.