Market and street traders
and assistants
Market and street traders and assistants sell goods (other than refreshments) from stalls, barrows and other portable containers in streets and market places.
- Employees (UK)
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- Median annual pay
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- Exposure score ?
- 1.8/10 Minimal 3.5/10 Low strict reading, with tools is 3.5/10 with-tools reading, strict is 1.8/10
- Wage exposure
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Higher exposure than 78% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
A few tasks in this role are within reach of AI, mostly paperwork, scheduling and routine writing. The shape of the role stays the same, and some parts get faster.
If you are in this role
Pick the two or three most repetitive things in your week and try a model on them. Most people underestimate what Claude or ChatGPT already does with admin-shaped work. The time you get back is the gain.
Where the work usually starts.
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgement, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where the work starts. Switch to With tools to see what AI plus the right context can take on.
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Explain products or services and prices and demonstrate use of products.
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Develop prospect lists.
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Write and record orders for merchandise or enter orders into computers.
These are the most important tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. The first wins usually come from building workflows around them. That is the difference between a model that could do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Develop prospect lists.
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Write and record orders for merchandise or enter orders into computers.
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Answer questions about product features and benefits.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers" (41-9091.00).
What AI can already do
2 of 12 tasks, unaided
Write and record orders for merchandise or enter orders into computers.
Answer questions about product features and benefits.
What still needs a person
10 of 12 tasks
Explain products or services and prices and demonstrate use of products.
Develop prospect lists.
Deliver merchandise and collect payment.
Arrange buying parties and solicit sponsorship of such parties to sell merchandise.
Distribute product samples or literature that details products or services.
Circulate among potential customers or travel by foot, truck, automobile, or bicycle to deliver or sell merchandise or services.
Persuade customers to purchase merchandise or services.
Set up and display sample merchandise at parties or stands.
Order or purchase supplies.
Stock carts or stands.
Tasks via O*NET "Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers" (41-9091.00).
What AI can already do
4 of 12 tasks, with tools
Develop prospect lists.
Write and record orders for merchandise or enter orders into computers.
Answer questions about product features and benefits.
Order or purchase supplies.
What still needs a person
8 of 12 tasks
Explain products or services and prices and demonstrate use of products.
Deliver merchandise and collect payment.
Arrange buying parties and solicit sponsorship of such parties to sell merchandise.
Distribute product samples or literature that details products or services.
Circulate among potential customers or travel by foot, truck, automobile, or bicycle to deliver or sell merchandise or services.
Persuade customers to purchase merchandise or services.
Set up and display sample merchandise at parties or stands.
Stock carts or stands.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Sales and customer service occupations, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons