Counted October 17, 2026 · from employers’ own postings
Retail: 20,945 open roles, 9,126 entry level.
Selling in person and online — store teams, merchandising, buying and store management.
7,143 of these postings state no level; the entry-level count is over the ones that do, plus any that ask for a year or less and are not titled senior. Pay is the median of posted bands, in USD, only where eight or more roles posted one. Only open roles are counted.
The roles, as the postings name them
Open roles and posted pay by role.
| Role | Open roles | Median posted band |
|---|---|---|
| Sales Associate | 2,677 | $36K |
| Mobile Associate | 1,518 | — (0 of 8 bands) |
| Assistant Manager | 1,092 | $43K |
| Cashier | 890 | $36K |
| Retail Sales Associate | 680 | $41K |
| Retail Assistant Manager | 664 | $37K |
| Store Associate | 653 | $35K |
| Assistant Store Manager | 621 | $43K |
| Store Manager | 567 | $70K |
| Retail Service Specialist | 516 | $39K |
| Retail Associate | 399 | $52K |
| Merchandiser | 364 | $42K |
What each pays, on its own page: Sales Associate, Assistant Manager, Retail Sales Associate, Retail Assistant Manager, Store Associate, Assistant Store Manager, Store Manager, Retail Associate, Stock Associate, Personal Banker, Store Manager In Training, Stock Clerk.
A role is the posting’s own title with its level, shift and schedule set aside, so “Registered Nurse – ICU (Nights)” and “Senior Registered Nurse” are one role. The twelve most posted; pay is the median of posted bands, where eight or more roles posted one.
The skills, as the postings name them
What the postings ask for.
| Skill | Postings | At entry |
|---|---|---|
| Customer Service | 13,552 | 63% |
| Visual Merchandising | 7,014 | 29% |
| Store Management | 6,561 | 11% |
| Retail Sales | 3,978 | 31% |
| Cash Handling | 3,137 | 5% |
| Cashiering | 2,863 | 12% |
| Opening and Closing Procedures | 2,627 | 3% |
| Loss Prevention | 2,607 | 9% |
| Stock Replenishment | 2,389 | 7% |
| Inventory Control | 2,227 | 9% |
| Point of Sale Systems | 1,993 | 11% |
| Payroll Processing | 1,923 | 0% |
A count of open postings naming each skill, the twelve most named; “at entry” is the share of the 9,126 entry-level postings that name it. Never a trend, never a score of you. Which of these you already have, and what you would learn first, is on your CareerVersion.
The ladder, by level
What each rung pays.
| Level | Open roles | Median posted band | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|
| INTERN | 30 | — (5 of 8 bands) | — |
| JUNIOR | 8,827 | $38K | $35K–$43K |
| MID | 43 | — (2 of 8 bands) | — |
| SENIOR | 135 | $89K | $61K–$106K |
| STAFF | 228 | $53K | $48K–$68K |
| PRINCIPAL | 5 | — (3 of 8 bands) | — |
| MANAGEMENT | 4,534 | $53K | $41K–$79K |
Levels as the postings name them. A rung shows a median only where eight or more postings at that level carried a band; the middle half is the twenty-fifth to seventy-fifth percentile of those bands.
Who is hiring
The employers with the most open.
| Employer | Open roles | Entry level |
|---|---|---|
| Dollartree | 1,688 | 30 |
| Tmobile | 1,637 | 1,548 |
| Knitwellgroup | 1,088 | 984 |
| O'Reilly Auto Parts | 1,012 | — |
| Us Retail | 888 | 225 |
| MCG | 708 | — |
| Brookshires | 690 | — |
| Weis Markets | 531 | 494 |
| Fifththird | 517 | 356 |
| Worldmarket | 514 | 506 |
Counted from employers’ own job boards. The twelve with the most open roles in this career tonight; “entry level” is how many of those ask for no prior experience.
Where the work is
1% of open retail roles are remote.
- Remote1%118 roles
- Hybrid0%51 roles
- On site92%19,281 roles
- Not stated7%1,495 roles
As the boards state it. Nothing in the postings supports a city-level figure, so none is given.
How this was counted
Every figure here is counted from 20,945 open postings read from 444 employers’ own job boards on October 17, 2026, and recounted every night. Pay is the band the employer posted — never an estimate, never a model: a level shows a median only where eight or more postings carried one, and 6,357 of these postings did. Titles are grouped by the words the postings use, with levels, shifts and schedules removed, so one role is one row. The same counts as Markdown are at facts.md.
Make retail your path — free.
A CareerVersion remembers your record and shows you three real retail roles and the three skills the market asks for, on your first screen.
Counted October 17, 2026 from 20,945 open postings; refreshed nightly. Facts as Markdown: facts.md.