---
title: "Retail Salesperson"
description: "Sell merchandise, such as furniture, motor vehicles, appliances, or apparel to consumers."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/retail-salesperson"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Retail Salesperson

**Category:** Sales and Related · **SOC code:** 41-2031 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 41-2031.00

Sell merchandise, such as furniture, motor vehicles, appliances, or apparel to consumers.

Also advertised as: Car Salesman; Customer Assistant; Retail Salesperson; Sales Associate; Sales Clerk; Sales Consultant; Sales Person; Sales Representative.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $35,410 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $17.03/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $27,210 to $47,890, with the middle half between $29,900 and $38,670
- **Total US employment:** 3,897,860
- **Typical entry education:** No formal credential
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -0.5% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 555,800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 56/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 3,897,860 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $27,210 |
| 25th | $29,900 |
| 50th (median) | $35,410 |
| 75th | $38,670 |
| 90th | $47,890 |
| Mean (average) | $37,310 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $39,560 | $36,967 | 84,850 |
| DC | $38,500 | $35,032 | 4,660 |
| CA | $38,440 | $34,718 | 376,460 |
| CO | $37,950 | $36,826 | 76,660 |
| HI | $37,790 | $34,370 | 19,180 |
| NY | $37,720 | $34,951 | 238,540 |
| VT | $37,400 | $38,180 | 8,250 |
| AK | $37,290 | $36,431 | 7,890 |
| OR | $36,770 | $35,574 | 48,090 |
| ME | $36,640 | $37,754 | 18,450 |
| MA | $36,610 | $34,617 | 86,860 |
| NJ | $36,520 | $33,565 | 72,530 |
| CT | $36,490 | $35,219 | 42,410 |
| MN | $36,370 | $36,879 | 74,840 |
| MT | $36,270 | $38,322 | 13,490 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/retail-salesperson/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/retail-salesperson.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 3,936,700 in the 2024–2034 base year to 3,917,100 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 19,600 jobs, or -0.5%. Declining: -0.5% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 555,800 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** No formal educational credential (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Short-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 63.5% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 19.3% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 9.8% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 4.0% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 2.0% |
| Some College Courses | 1.4% |

## What the work involves

- Greet customers and ascertain what each customer wants or needs.
- Describe merchandise and explain use, operation, and care of merchandise to customers.
- Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.
- Recommend, select, and help locate or obtain merchandise based on customer needs and desires.
- Answer questions regarding the store and its merchandise.
- Ticket, arrange, and display merchandise to promote sales.
- Place special orders or call other stores to find desired items.
- Watch for and recognize security risks and thefts and know how to prevent or handle these situations.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Persuasion — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Sales and Marketing — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Enterprising (E), Conventional (C), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 6.13 |
| C — Conventional | 5.17 |
| R — Realistic | 3.20 |
| S — Social | 2.96 |
| A — Artistic | 1.98 |
| I — Investigative | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 83.8 |
| ESFJ | 82.9 |
| ESTP | 67.3 |
| ESFP | 65.2 |
| ENTJ | 64.2 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ, ESFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Counter and Rental Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/counter-and-rental-clerk) — median $41,300
- [Door-to-Door Sales Worker, News and Street Vendor, and Related Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/door-to-door-sales-worker-news-and-street-vendor-and-related-worker) — median $41,380
- [Stocker and Order Filler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stocker-and-order-filler) — median $37,330
- [Demonstrator and Product Promoter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/demonstrator-and-product-promoter) — median $39,320
- [First-Line Supervisor of Retail Sales Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-retail-sales-workers) — median $48,520
- [Cashier](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cashier) — median $32,880
- [Parts Salesperson](https://nuecareer.com/careers/parts-salesperson) — median $38,630
- [Customer Service Representative](https://nuecareer.com/careers/customer-service-representative) — median $44,770
- [Telemarketer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/telemarketer) — median $35,450
- [Order Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/order-clerk) — median $46,170

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/retail-salesperson