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.
1,121,800 people do this job in the US. $48,520 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 46%
- 12%
- 42%
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, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 19%. Today's estimate: 26%.
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 . 21 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Establish credit policies and operating procedures.Done daily by most who do it. | 9% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | 46%Half by Oct 2026 | |
| Establish and implement policies, goals, objectives, and procedures for the department.Done daily by most who do it. | 9% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | 46%Half by Oct 2026 | |
| Direct and supervise employees engaged in sales, inventory-taking, reconciling cash receipts, or in performing services for customers.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Monitor sales activities to ensure that customers receive satisfactory service and quality goods.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 7% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Plan budgets and authorize payments and merchandise returns.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 7% | 3.3 h50 min to 6.7 h | 32%Half by Jan 2027 | |
| Hire, train, and evaluate personnel in sales or marketing establishments, promoting or firing workers when appropriate.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 6% | 3.3 h1.3 h to 1 work day | Stays with people | |
| Perform work activities of subordinates, such as cleaning and organizing shelves and displays and selling merchandise.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 50 min13 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Plan and coordinate advertising campaigns and sales promotions and prepare merchandise displays and advertising copy.Done more than weekly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 6% | 4.2 h1.7 h to 1 work day | Stays with people | |
| Formulate pricing policies for merchandise, according to profitability requirements.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 1.7 h38 min to 3.3 h | 80%Half by now | |
| Estimate consumer demand and determine the types and amounts of goods to be sold.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 2.5 h50 min to 5 h | 55%Half by now | |
| Review inventory and sales records to prepare reports for management and budget departments.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 2.1 h50 min to 4.2 h | 72%Half by now | |
| Inventory stock and reorder when inventory drops to a specified level.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.5 h | 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.
- First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers37% now, 63% by 2028
- First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers47% now, 77% by 2028
- First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers48% now, 56% by 2028
- First-Line Supervisors of Entertainment and Recreation Workers, Except Gambling Services24% now, 30% by 2028
- First-Line Supervisors of Housekeeping and Janitorial Workers39% now, 56% by 2028
- Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel69% now, 88% 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).