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Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products

Sales and Related · SOC 41-4011

27.1% AI Exposure — High
$104,920
Median Annual Salary
Average
O*NET Outlook
36,000
Proj. Annual Openings
284,800
Employment (OEWS 2025)
-1.2%/yr
Empl. growth (2019–2025)
73/100
AI Resiliency Score

AI exposure from the Anthropic Economic Index (2025); salary from BLS; skills from O*NET. See /sources.

Decision card

Career Evidence Passport

SOC 41-4011 evidence across exposure, wages, projections, postings, certified LCAs, skills, and transitions.

Proxy / seed data labeledDescriptive-only
SOC exposure
27.1%
High · Anthropic AEI
Automation friction
51/100
Moderate friction; broad SOC seed ORS job-requirements coverage.
Wages
$104,920
H-1B offered wage $92,000; LCAs are filings.
Projected openings
36,000
BLS EP 2024–2034; employment change +1.9%.
Observed/proxy demand
151
FY2025 certified LCAs; 53,931 postings in 2025.

Skill evidence

SpeakingPersuasionActive ListeningNegotiationSpeaking
  • H-1B values are certified Labor Condition Applications, not visa approvals.
  • Job postings are seed-static / seed-derived; treat as provider-ready proxy coverage until observed provider data is wired in.
  • Transition matches are directional skill-overlap context, not placement guarantees.
  • This release is a FutureGrid broad-SOC seed derived from public BLS ORS requirement concepts and categories, not direct occupation-level ORS survey estimates. It describes job requirements, not worker ability, AI capability, or displacement probability. Automation friction is a FutureGrid derived score and should be read alongside exposure, demand, wage, and projection signals.

Best transitions from here

Explore all pathways

Lower AI-exposure roles that reuse your skills, ranked by a transition score (skills that transfer, safety gain, pay and retraining effort).

AI Exposure Analysis

AI Exposure27.1%
AI Resiliency73/100
Exposure BandHigh
Sector Avg. Exposure27.4%

Across AI measures

Multiple exposure lenses for this occupation.

53.9%
Consensus
Actual adoption · Anthropic27.1%
AI capability · OpenAI49.8%
AI ability · AIOE84.8%
Automation baseline (2013) · Frey & Osborne25%

AI could do ~49.8% of this role but only ~27.1% is currently done with AI — a large capability-vs-adoption gap.

Top Skills

1.Speaking
2.Persuasion
3.Active Listening
4.Negotiation
5.Speaking

H-1B Visa Sponsorship Demand

View full H-1B trends →

Certified H-1B Labor Condition Applications naming this occupation, FY2016–FY2025. A descriptive high-skill labor-demand signal — employer filings, not visa approvals or individual outcomes. Note: one LCA can cover multiple worker positions.

1,016
Decade Total (Certified LCAs)
151
FY2025 Volume
0% of all H-1B filings in FY2025
$92,000
Median Offered Wage (Latest Year)
#173 of 776
Rank by Total Volume
H-1B filing volume, FY2016–FY2025

O*NET occupation profile

What this work involves

Sell goods for wholesalers or manufacturers where technical or scientific knowledge is required in such areas as biology, engineering, chemistry, and electronics, normally obtained from at least 2 years of postsecondary education.

Common titles: Inside Sales Representative, Marketing Representative, Sales Representative

Representative Tasks

  • Negotiate prices or terms of sales or service agreements.
  • Prepare and submit sales contracts for orders.
  • Visit establishments to evaluate needs or to promote product or service sales.
  • Maintain customer records, using automated systems.
  • Answer customers' questions about products, prices, availability, or credit terms.

Detailed Work Activities

  • Negotiate prices or other sales terms.
  • Contact current or potential customers to promote products or services.
  • Sell products or services.
  • Gather customer or product information to determine customer needs.
  • Prepare sales or other contracts.

Tools & Technologies

Microsoft Outlook · hotSalesforce software · hotAmazon Web Services AWS software · hotMicrosoft Access · hotOracle Database · hotOracle PeopleSoft · hotSAP software · hotZoom · hotAct!ActionWare

Employment Projections & AI Exposure

15
Occupations Shown
25.5%
Avg AI Exposure
7
Bright Outlook
Horizontal bar chart showing occupations with the highest projected annual openings. Each bar length represents annual projected openings. Color uses a gradient from violet (lower) to cyan (higher). Summary statistics are shown above the chart.

Employment & Wage Trend

BLS OEWS, 2019–2025


Occupation Employment & Wage TrendMulti-year BLS OEWS history for SOC 41-4011: 2019 — employment: 306,980, median wage: $81,020; 2020 — employment: 288,150, median wage: $86,650; 2021 — employment: 266,160, median wage: $94,840; 2022 — employment: 290,830, median wage: $97,710; 2023 — employment: 311,780, median wage: $99,710; 2025 — employment: 284,800, median wage: $104,920.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). See /sources.

Sector Comparison

MetricThis CareerSector Average
AI Exposure27.1%27.4%
OutlookAverage35% Bright
Median Salary$104,920N/A
AI Resiliency73/100N/A