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Counter and Rental Clerks

Receive orders, generally in person, for repairs, rentals, and services. May describe available options, compute cost, and accept payment.

400,810 people do this job in the US. $41,300 a year.

now
53%

of the working time. Estimate.

Kinds of work
  • 53%
  • 4%
  • 42%
20%

Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.

Half the desk work within reach
Already

On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.

Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030

0%25%50%75%100%2027202820292030NowDesk work: 53% of the time
Chosen to Ceiling: the share
DateNow
NowEnd of 2030

What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .

At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.

How far this has come

With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 22%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 53%. Today's estimate: 53%.

0%25%50%2023202420252026GPT-4, March 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4 Turbo (Nov 2023), November 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4o, May 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (June 2024), June 2024: 0% within reacho1-preview, September 2024: 3% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (Oct 2024), October 2024: 3% within reacho1, December 2024: 9% within reachClaude 3.7 Sonnet, February 2025: 22% within reacho3, April 2025: 43% within reachGPT-5, August 2025: 46% within reachGemini 3 Pro, November 2025: 50% within reachClaude Opus 4.5, November 2025: 50% within reachGPT-5.2, December 2025: 51% within reachClaude Opus 4.6, February 2026: 51% within reachClaude Mythos Preview (early), April 2026: 53% within reachToday (estimate), September 2026: 53% within reach
Each step is a new best model measured by METR, four in five; the dashed end is today's estimate. Point at a dot for the model.

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.

The tasks

Sorted by . 16 tasks from .

TaskKind
Greet customers and discuss the type, quality, and quantity of merchandise sought for rental.Done hourly or more by most who do it. 10%13 min4 min to 25 minStays with people
Rent items, arrange for provision of services to customers, and accept returns.Done hourly or more by most who do it. 10%17 min8 min to 38 minStays with people
Prepare merchandise for display or for purchase or rental.Done daily by most who do it. 8%21 min8 min to 42 minStays with people
Prepare rental forms, obtaining customer signature and other information, such as required licenses.Done hourly or more by most who do it. 8%13 min4 min to 25 min100%Half by now
Receive, examine, and tag articles to be altered, cleaned, stored, or repaired.Done hourly or more by most who do it. 7%13 min4 min to 29 minStays with people
Receive orders for services, such as rentals, repairs, dry cleaning, and storage.Done hourly or more by most who do it. 7%8 min4 min to 21 min100%Half by now
Compute charges for merchandise or services and receive payments.Done hourly or more by most who do it. 7%7 min3 min to 13 min100%Half by now
Answer telephones to provide information and receive orders.Done hourly or more by most who do it. 7%7 min3 min to 13 min100%Half by now
Recommend and provide advice on a wide variety of products and services.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task.6%13 min4 min to 25 min100%Half by now
Keep records of transactions and of the number of customers entering an establishment.Done daily by most who do it. 6%13 min4 min to 38 min99%Half by now
Reserve items for requested times and keep records of items rented.Done hourly or more by most who do it. 6%13 min4 min to 25 min100%Half by now
Inspect and adjust rental items to meet needs of customer.Done daily by most who do it. 5%10 min4 min to 25 minStays with people

Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.

Jobs that share skills with this one

From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.

Where this job works

The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).

Where the most of these jobs are

The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).