Career Explorer Transport and logistics
Human edge, growing
Stockers and order fillers
Receive, store, and issue merchandise, materials, equipment, and other items from stockroom, warehouse, or storage yard to fill shelves, racks, tables, or customers' orders. May operate power equipment to fill orders. May mark prices on merchandise and set up sales displays.
Among the most resilient careers: more resilient than 88% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is low (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it moderate), and US jobs are projected to change by +8.9% by 2035, faster than average.
AI struggles with much of this work, and US employers are expected to hire more people into it than average.
- Median pay (2025)
- $37,330
- Job growth to 2035
- +8.9%
- Openings a year
- 431,000
- People doing it (2025)
- 2.8 million
- Usual route in
- No formal credential, then short on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Explain technical details of products or services
- Determine values or prices of goods or services
- Prepare documentation for contracts, applications, or permits
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Stock supplies or products
- Process shipments or mail
- Load products, materials, or equipment for transportation or further processing
What the work looks like
- Take inventory or examine merchandise to identify items to be reordered or replenished.
- Answer customers' questions about merchandise and advise customers on merchandise selection.
- Receive and count stock items, and record data manually or on computer.
- Receive, unload, open, unpack, or issue sales floor merchandise.
- Stock shelves, racks, cases, bins, and tables with new or transferred merchandise.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- More of these jobs, as more workers are needed to pick orders from shelves for customers as current technology does not allow for preparing these types of increased orders.
- More of these jobs, as changing consumer shopping habits (e.g. buy online, pick up in-store) will require additional workers to obtain merchandise from the store and deliver to curbside shoppers.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Agricultural equipment operatorsHuman edge, growing, Index 98, +8.6%
- Dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpersHuman edge, growing, Index 96, +5.3%
- Cleaners of vehicles and equipmentHuman edge, growing, Index 90, +3.9%
- Fence erectorsHuman edge, growing, Index 91, +5.6%
Also known as: Order Filler, Stock Clerk, Stocker, Warehouse Worker, Checker Stocker, Inventory Technician (Inventory Tech), Label Maker, Marking Clerk.
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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.