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Service and sales workers · code 5221

Shop keepers

Shopkeepers operate small retail shops either independently or with support from a small number of others. Tasks include - (a) determining product mix, stock and price levels for goods to be sold; (b) purchasing and ordering goods for sale from markets, wholesalers and other suppliers; (c) budgeting and maintaining records of stock levels and financial transactions; (d) determining prices and displaying goods for sale; (e) selling goods to customers and advising them on product use; (f) examining returned goods and deciding on appropriate action; (g) taking inventory of goods in stock. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Grocer - Newsagent - Shopkeeper Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Shop manager - 1420 - Market stallholder - 5211 Note Only operators of small shops for whom the management and supervision of staff are not a significant component of the work are classified in Unit Group 5221: Shopkeepers. Operators of shops where management tasks and supervision of staff are significant and frequent elements of the work are classified in Unit Group 1420: Retail and Wholesale Trade Managers. 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, staffing levels, selection and recruitment are classified in Unit Group 5222: Shop Supervisors.

A good share of the tasks are affected. It ranks 345 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • retail entrepreneur

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

56.9
Holds up
against AI Exposed: Gradient 2

AI could take on 43.1 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 43.1 = 56.9

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 59, while the average is 43.1. 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. 59

    Budgeting and maintaining records of stock levels and financial transactions

    Medium
  2. 49

    Purchasing and ordering goods for sale from markets, wholesalers and other suppliers

    Low
  3. 45.3

    Selling goods to customers and advising them on product use

    Low
  4. 45

    Determining product mix, stock and price levels for goods to be sold

    Low
  5. 39

    Determining prices and displaying goods for sale

    Low
  6. 35.3

    Taking inventory of goods in stock.

    Low
  7. 29

    Examining returned goods and deciding on appropriate action

    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.

One Australian job matches, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
73
AI does it for you
48

Helping wins by 25 points.

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

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Service and sales workers” group, averaging 74.9. This one is below that.