Career Explorer Sales
Changing shape
First-line supervisors of retail sales workers
Directly supervise and coordinate activities of retail sales workers in an establishment or department. Duties may include management functions, such as purchasing, budgeting, accounting, and personnel work, in addition to supervisory duties.
Among the careers AI is changing fastest: more resilient than 15% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is high (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it high), and US jobs are projected to change by -3.7% by 2035, expected to shrink. The work leans on emotional intelligence.
AI can do many of the tasks, and hiring is expected to grow slower than average or to shrink. The job is likely to change, so build the human parts of it.
- Median pay (2025)
- $48,520
- Job growth to 2035
- -3.7%
- Openings a year
- 114,000
- People doing it (2025)
- 1.4 million
- Usual route in
- High school diploma
Where people already use AI for this work
- Respond to customer problems or inquiries
- Provide general assistance to others, such as customers, patrons, or motorists
- Inspect characteristics or conditions of materials or products
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Supervise personnel activities
- Develop educational programs, plans, or procedures
- Assign work to others
What the work looks like
- Provide customer service by greeting and assisting customers and responding to customer inquiries and complaints.
- Direct and supervise employees engaged in sales, inventory-taking, reconciling cash receipts, or in performing services for customers.
- Formulate pricing policies for merchandise, according to profitability requirements.
- Examine merchandise to ensure that it is correctly priced and displayed and that it functions as advertised.
- Monitor sales activities to ensure that customers receive satisfactory service and quality goods.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- Fewer of these jobs, as traditional department stores continue to lose business, resulting in less demand for sales staff and supervisors.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Parts salespersonsChanging shape, Index 49, +3.0%
- Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerksChanging shape, Index 22, +1.8%
- Real estate sales agentsChanging shape, Index 16, +1.7%
- Psychiatric aidesHuman edge, steady, Index 86, +1.9%
Also known as: Department Manager, Meat Department Manager, Shift Manager, Store Manager, Bakery Manager, Delicatessen Manager, Department Supervisor, Grocery Manager.
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.