Subsector, 449
Furniture, Home Furnishings, Electronics, and Appliance Retailers
764,510 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $50,460 a year (BLS, May 2025). What follows is how much of their working time the best AI models could finish, when, and in which jobs and tasks. Estimates.
of the paid hours. Estimate.
a year: 422 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 37%
- 24%
- 39%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 20% is within reach in tasks not yet seen there.
Across the US: 22% within reach now and 37% by the end of 2028, on the long-run pace at four in five.
Share of the paid hours within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this industry's paid hours were within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 2%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 24%. Today's estimate: 27%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Where the hours are
Jobs by hours within reach now. The 40 largest jobs hold 93% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Salespersons | 265,280 | 19% | 107 million | $36K |
| Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel | 79,880 | 43% | 71 million | $45K |
| Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks | 25,210 | 53% | 28 million | $37K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 17,880 | 64% | 24 million | $42K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers | 38,840 | 28% | 23 million | $52K |
| Office Clerks, General | 14,970 | 54% | 17 million | $40K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 9,360 | 78% | 15 million | $48K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers | 19,580 | 37% | 15 million | $60K |
| General and Operations Managers | 29,330 | 23% | 14 million | $81K |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | 17,010 | 19% | 6.7 million | $39K |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products | 8,410 | 36% | 6.3 million | $56K |
| Computer, Automated Teller, and Office Machine Repairers | 17,740 | 17% | 6.2 million | $39K |
People: BLS counts for this industry, May 2025. Pay here: the median paid for the job in this industry, else its mean, else the national median. 125 smaller jobs (51,020 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 99% of the industry's people; the rest are in BLS "all other" groups with no task list, or in counts BLS does not publish.
The tasks with the most hours within reach by the end of 2028
Across the whole industry, on the chosen pace and reliability.
- Develop sales presentations or proposals to explain service specifications.Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel34 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.Retail Salespersons32 million hours50% of the task within reach
- Maintain records related to sales.Retail Salespersons17 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Identify prospective customers using business directories, leads from clients, or information from conferences or trade shows.Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel17 million hours70% of the task within reach
- Inventory stock and requisition new stock.Retail Salespersons15 million hours20% of the task within reach
- Monitor market conditions, innovations, and competitors' services, prices, and sales.Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel12 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Open and close cash registers, performing tasks such as counting money, separating charge slips, coupons, and vouchers, balancing cash drawers, and making deposits.Retail Salespersons10 million hours20% of the task within reach
- Prepare sales slips or sales contracts.Retail Salespersons10 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Attend sales or trade meetings or read related publications to obtain information about market conditions, business trends, regulations, or industry developments.Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel9.7 million hours50% of the task within reach
- Sell or arrange for delivery, insurance, financing, or service contracts for merchandise.Retail Salespersons8.9 million hours50% of the task within reach
Scan a typical company in this industry
The industry's largest jobs, in the proportions BLS counts across the whole industry, at the pay it pays, run through the company scan. A starting point before you have a roster, or a benchmark for the one you have.
Inside this industry
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
How it is built: BLS counts the people in each job in this industry; each job's tasks and their lengths give its share within reach at a date; the industry's share is those shares weighted by people. Value is pay times 1.43 for benefits and payroll costs. Seen in Claude use splits today's share by whether Anthropic saw people bring each task to Claude in 2025; other AI tools are not counted. How it works