Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers
Sell goods or services door-to-door or on the street.
2,760 people do this job in the US. $41,380 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 31%
- 7%
- 63%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 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, 3%. 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.
The tasks
Sorted by . 12 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circulate among potential customers or travel by foot, truck, automobile, or bicycle to deliver or sell merchandise or services.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 36% | 1.7 h25 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Develop prospect lists.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 10% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | 95%Half by now | |
| Distribute product samples or literature that details products or services.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 10% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Arrange buying parties and solicit sponsorship of such parties to sell merchandise.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 10% | 1.7 h25 min to 3.3 h | 65%Half by now | |
| Deliver merchandise and collect payment.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 8% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Persuade customers to purchase merchandise or services.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 7% | 17 min4 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Explain products or services and prices and demonstrate use of products.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 6% | 13 min4 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Answer questions about product features and benefits.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 5% | 8 min3 min to 17 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Write and record orders for merchandise or enter orders into computers.Done more than weekly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 3% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Order or purchase supplies.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 2% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Set up and display sample merchandise at parties or stands.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 2% | 33 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Stock carts or stands.Done daily by most who do it. | 1% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays 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.
- Retail Salespersons20% now, 20% by 2028
- Counter and Rental Clerks53% now, 53% by 2028
- Demonstrators and Product Promoters21% now, 26% by 2028
- Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products44% now, 52% by 2028
- Cashiers30% now, 30% by 2028
- Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products39% now, 65% by 2028
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).