Retail work builds service orientation, social perceptiveness and persuasion, skills banks, offices and call centers hire for every day. Of the 25 careers below, Tellers match retail workers best at 93%, and 22 of the 25 pay more than retail at the median.
Updated October 2026 · Data: O*NET 31.0 and BLS OEWS May 2025 · How we match careers
Sorted by skill match.
| # | Career | Skill match | Median pay | Pay change | Extra education |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tellers | 93% | $43,030 | +25% | None |
| 2 | Customer Service Representatives | 90% | $44,770 | +31% | None |
| 3 | Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers | 90% | $41,380 | +21% | None |
| 4 | Gambling Cage Workers | 88% | $37,580 | +10% | None |
| 5 | Postal Service Clerks | 88% | $62,130 | +81% | None |
| 6 | First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers | 88% | $48,520 | +41% | None |
| 7 | Stockers and Order Fillers | 86% | $37,330 | +9% | None |
| 8 | Demonstrators and Product Promoters | 86% | $39,320 | +15% | None |
| 9 | Telemarketers | 85% | $35,450 | +3% | None |
| 10 | Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks | 85% | $35,070 | +2% | None |
Compared with retail salespersons and cashiers: employment-weighted median $34,291. Skill match is our estimate (0–99) from O*NET 31.0 skills, knowledge, work activities and interests, adjusted for preparation and big pay drops. Pay: BLS OEWS May 2025, national median.
How important each skill is in retail workers’ work (O*NET importance, scale 1–5).
The gaps that show up most often across your top 10 matches.
Free and low-cost training: use the CareerOneStop training finder below.
Retail teaches you to handle customers, cash and complaints at the same time, often while on your feet all shift. O*NET rates service orientation at 3.44 out of 5 for retail workers, which is why teller, customer service and clerk roles rank so high. Most of these jobs use the same register, product and people skills with steadier hours. Customer Service Representatives, for example, solve the same problems over the phone. The main gaps are problem solving and operations analysis.
A concrete first step, the skills to add, and the hard parts of each job, from O*NET 31.0 education, training and work context data.
93% skill match · $43,030 · +25% pay
Complex Problem Solving · Systems Evaluation · Instructing
90% skill match · $44,770 · +31% pay
Complex Problem Solving · Service Orientation · Technology Design
90% skill match · $41,380 · +21% pay
Persuasion · Operations Analysis · Social Perceptiveness
No work-context factor stands out as unusually hard in O*NET data.
If you want to stay close to what you do now, these roles are the nearest.
The closest matches are Tellers (93%), Customer Service Representatives (90%) and Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers (90%), based on O*NET 31.0. Postal Service Clerks and First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers (88% each) are also strong options.
22 of the 25 matches pay more than the $34,291 median for the retail workers on this page. Postal Service Clerks earn $62,130, an 81% increase, and Customer Service Representatives earn $44,770, a 31% increase, according to BLS May 2025 data. Sales representatives of services earn $69,990.
Yes. 24 of the 25 matches usually need no more education than a retail job, based on O*NET Job Zones. Training happens mostly on the job: tellers usually train for up to 1 month, while customer service representatives can take 6 months to a year to fully learn the role.
First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers (88% match) earn a median of $48,520, which is 41% more than the retail workers on this page. If you want to stay in stores, Counter and Rental Clerks (91%) and Parts Salespersons (83%) are other close roles with similar skills.