First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers

Low Risk
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Explore safer careers (4)

Lower estimated automation risk

Sales Managers
11% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better Higher growth
21.3 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Uses sales goals, staff coaching, merchandising plans, customer trends, budgets, and performance reviews.

Training and Development Specialists
19% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better Higher growth
13.2 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Reuses staff onboarding, sales training, service standards, coaching, materials, and performance feedback.

General and Operations Managers
15% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better Higher growth
17.3 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Advancement path using store operations, staffing, budgets, customer service, sales metrics, and policy execution.

Purchasing Managers
21% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better Higher growth
11.2 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Weaker advancement path using buying input, vendor coordination, budgets, inventory, pricing, and demand planning.

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
4.0/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

32% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): This occupation has a lower risk of full replacement by AI, software, or robotic systems. Some tasks may be automated or assisted, but the role usually still relies on human judgement, communication, responsibility, physical adaptability, or practical decision-making.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Working directly with the public

Very important
Why this matters
The job involves face-to-face interaction with customers, clients, or guests—answering questions, handling requests, and managing service situations in real time. Roles with frequent public interaction are harder to replace end-to-end because they rely on trust, communication, and adapting to unpredictable human needs.
Jobs that also use this strength

Assisting and caring for others

Quite important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
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Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Negotiation

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together to reconcile differences, trade off priorities, and reach agreements—work that depends on trust, persuasion, and reading the situation.
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Originality

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with novel ideas and creative solutions when there isn’t an obvious playbook to follow.
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Show 4 more strengths

Decision-making and problem solving

Quite important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Coaching and developing others

Quite important
Why this matters
Helps people learn and improve through coaching, mentoring, and feedback. This relies on trust, motivation, and adapting guidance to each person—work that’s hard to replace end-to-end with automation.
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Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 60 votes

52% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. However, employees may be able to find reassurance in the automated risk level we have generated, which shows 32% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

View sentiment trend

Pay & outlook

Wages

Low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers was $47,320 ($23 per hour).

The median annual wage for First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers was 4.4% lower than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers' job openings is expected to decline 5.0% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 1,113,160 people employed as 'First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers' within the United States.

This represents around 0.7% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 138 people are employed as 'First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers'.

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What people are saying (3)

Ben (No chance)
20 Jan 2020 03:02
No way there needs be someone there to supervise everything. That’s insane to walk into a store/gas station without a single employee in sight. Humans have emotions/ robots don’t. I’m pretty sure a pissed off customer would just beat the living hell out of the robot/piece of equipment for not working properly or for simply misunderstanding the customer due to lack of empathy. Also technology is prone to errors someone needs to fix it when it breaks. Look at today with technology- it always isn’t the greatest thing in the world but it’s nice to have. It would take decades to get to that point of automation.
David Roberts (Low)
15 Aug 2019 17:00
This profession requires skills that are uniquely human in nature. For example, the emotional skill of empathy. This ability allows for better customer service when situations arise that are beyond the average daily employee/customer interaction. When the customer has a unique issue regarding a transaction, only a human skilled in empathy can discern what is best for both the customer and the company.
Gavin Gallegos (Uncertain)
10 Apr 2019 10:39
Amazon is testing automated stores with no employees running them. Eventually other grocers may follow suit. There would be no place for me, and I am not tech savvy.
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Job description

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.

O*NET-SOC code: 41-1011.00