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Managers · code 1420

Retail and wholesale trade managers

Retail and wholesale trade managers, plan, organize, coordinate and control the operations of establishments that sell goods on a retail or wholesale basis. They are responsible for the budgets, staffing and strategic and operational direction of shops, or of organizational units within shops that sell particular types of product. Tasks include - (a) determining product mix, stock levels and service standards; (b) formulating and implementing purchasing and marketing policies, and setting prices; (c) promoting and advertising the establishment’s goods and services; (d) maintaining records of stock levels and financial transactions; (e) undertaking budgeting for the establishment; (f) controlling selection, training and supervision of staff; (g) ensuring compliance with occupational health and safety regulations. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Grocery manager - Retail manager - Shop manager - Supermarket manager Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Sales manager - 1221 - Shopkeeper - 5221 - Shop supervisor - 5222 - Shop sales assistant - 5223 Notes Retail and wholesale trade managers are frequently employed in relatively small establishments that do not have a hierarchy of managers. The managers of large retail establishments such as supermarkets and department stores, however, should generally also be classified in this group, although such establishments may have a hierarchy of managers and supervisors. General managers of groups of establishments such as supermarket or department store chains are classified, however, in Unit Group 1120: Managing Directors and Chief Executives. Operators of small shops for whom the management and supervision of staff is not a significant component of the work are classified in Unit Group 5221: Shopkeepers. Staff who control and direct the activities of shop sales assistants, checkout operators and other workers, but who do not take responsibility for determining product mix, overall setting of prices, budgets and staffing levels, selection and recruitment, are classified in Unit Group 5222: Shop Supervisors.

A good share of the tasks are affected. It ranks 347 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • trade regional manager
  • shop manager
  • supermarket manager
  • department store manager
  • sales account manager
  • retail department manager

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

56.4
Holds up
against AI Exposed: Gradient 2

AI could take on 43.6 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 43.6 = 56.4

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

25.5
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

6.3
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 7.1 · hand skill 7.1 · cramped spaces 4.7 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on under 50 Less than half hands-on

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

What this number leaves out This job rates 25.5 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 63.5, while the average is 43.6. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 63.5

    Promoting and advertising the establishment’s goods and services

    Medium
  2. 60

    Maintaining records of stock levels and financial transactions

    Medium
  3. 48.5

    Undertaking budgeting for the establishment

    Low
  4. 43.5

    Formulating and implementing purchasing and marketing policies, and setting prices

    Low
  5. 35.6

    Determining product mix, stock levels and service standards

    Low
  6. 28

    Controlling selection, training and supervision of staff

    Low
  7. 26

    Ensuring compliance with occupational health and safety regulations.

    Low

7 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
73
AI does it for you
50

Helping wins by 23 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 1333, 1421

Compared with similar jobs

There are 30 jobs in the “Managers” group, averaging 64.1. This one is below that.