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Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products vs Retail Salespersons

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products and Retail Salespersons on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products Retail Salespersons
Median pay · BLS OEWS
—
$34,580
Employment · BLS OEWS
—
3,800,250
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
68th pct
89th pct

At a glance

Dimension Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products Retail Salespersons
Median pay — $34,580
Employment — 3,800,250
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection — Declining (-0.5%)
Annual openings · BLS projection — 555,800
Typical education · O*NET Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree. Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies High · 68th pct High · 89th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 76th pct · 39% of tasks 74th pct · 38% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — Augmentation-leaning (31.4%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman Yes No

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Negotiation, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Sales and Marketing, Active Listening, Speaking, Critical Thinking, Persuasion, Written Comprehension, Deductive Reasoning, Customer and Personal Service, Problem Sensitivity, Speech Clarity, English Language, Mathematics, Speech Recognition, Administration and Management, Computers and Electronics, Active Learning, Judgment and Decision Making, Reading Comprehension, Social Perceptiveness, Complex Problem Solving, Inductive Reasoning, Category Flexibility, Mathematics, Monitoring, Coordination, Service Orientation, Information Ordering, Near Vision, Writing, Instructing, Time Management, Written Expression.

Specific to Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products

  • Mathematical Reasoning
  • Management of Financial Resources
  • Number Facility
  • Economics and Accounting
  • Systems Evaluation

Specific to Retail Salespersons

  • Administrative
  • Psychology
  • Fluency of Ideas
  • Originality
  • Selective Attention
  • Memorization

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Electronic mail software , Presentation software , Enterprise resource planning ERP software , Development environment software , Web page creation and editing software , Accounting software , Data base user interface and query software , Document management software , Operating system software , Word processing software , Point of sale POS software , Human resources software , Customer relationship management CRM software , Graphics or photo imaging software , Internet browser software .

Specific to Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products

Specific to Retail Salespersons

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products or Retail Salespersons — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products vs Retail Salespersons." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/wholesale-and-retail-buyers-except-farm-products-vs-retail-salespersons

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products vs Retail Salespersons. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/wholesale-and-retail-buyers-except-farm-products-vs-retail-salespersons

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-wholesale-and-retail-buyers-except-farm-products-vs-retail-salespersons,
  title  = {Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products vs Retail Salespersons},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/wholesale-and-retail-buyers-except-farm-products-vs-retail-salespersons}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.