# Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel

US SOC code 41-3091. Markdown version of https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/41-3091

Also called: Service sales rep, B2B sales representative, Account executive, Account manager, Inside sales rep.

## In brief

In May 2025, [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip) counted **1,256,010** US sales representatives of services (except advertising, insurance, financial services, and travel), with median pay of **$69,990** a year. Of the BLS counts since 2021, the May 2025 count is the highest. The earliest figure here is [a Census count](https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1904/dec/occupations.html) of **93,000** from 1900, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for sales representatives of services: Sales engagement platforms, 2010 to 2022.

## What the sources say

### Official outlook

BLS projects employment to grow 2.7% from 2025 to 2035. Source: [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=41-3091&ioType=o).

### AI exposure studies

- **56.7%** of this job's tasks are exposed to large language models. Not a forecast of job losses. [Eloundou and others, 2023](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv)

Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend.

## Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel employment and pay by year

- On record since: 1840
- Latest US employment: 1,256,010 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [5]
- Latest US median pay: $69,990 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [8]
- Outlook: +2.7% by 2035. Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 [23]

### All 11 years of cited US data

| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1900 | 93,000 | n/a | Decennial Census 1904 [1] |
| 1925 | 400,000 (estimate) | $2,200 (estimate) | Est., Todd Caponi [2] |
| 1960 | 700,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., HBS Working Knowledge [3] |
| 2000 | 870,000 (estimate) | $35,000 (estimate) | Est., O\*NET 41-3091.00 [4] |
| 2019 | 1,039,670 | $56,130 | BLS OEWS May 2019 [5] |
| 2020 | 977,070 | $58,770 | BLS OEWS May 2020 [5] |
| 2021 | 1,026,390 | $60,550 | BLS OEWS May 2021 [5] |
| 2022 | 1,075,750 | $62,400 | BLS OEWS May 2022 [5] |
| 2023 | 1,142,020 | $64,600 | BLS OEWS May 2023 [5] |
| 2024 | 1,189,330 | $66,260 | BLS OEWS May 2024 [5] |
| 2025 | 1,256,010 | $69,990 | BLS OEWS May 2025 [5] |

## Sources (50)

### Employment series

1. [US Census Bureau -- "Special Reports: Occupations at the Twelfth Census" (1904), commercial travelers classification](https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1904/dec/occupations.html), US Census Bureau
2. [Todd Caponi -- "The Great Salesperson Purge of the Early 1920s" (citing 1925 Bureau of Personnel Research study, 400,000 traveling salesmen)](https://toddcaponi.com/blog-salespurge1920/), Todd Caponi / Bureau of Personnel Research (1925)
3. [HBS Working Knowledge -- "Birth of the American Salesman" (Friedman); sales occupations approximately 7% of US workforce in 1960](https://www.library.hbs.edu/working-knowledge/birth-of-the-american-salesman), Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
4. [O\*NET 41-3091.00 -- BLS occupation profile at SOC introduction; Salesforce.com founding context (1999)](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/41-3091.00), O\*NET / BLS
5. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2024](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)

### Wage series

6. [Todd Caponi -- "The Great Salesperson Purge of the Early 1920s" (citing 1925 Bureau of Personnel Research cost study)](https://toddcaponi.com/blog-salespurge1920/), Todd Caponi / Bureau of Personnel Research (1925)
7. [O\*NET 41-3091.00 -- BLS occupation introduction reference (2000 SOC); BLS Sales and Related Occupations major-group wage data 2000](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/41-3091.00), O\*NET / BLS
8. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
9. [BLS OEWS May 2024, national cross-industry estimates (flat file)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

### Tool eras

10. [NEH Humanities -- "Traveling Man" (history of the commercial traveler in American economic development)](https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/novemberdecember/statement/traveling-man), National Endowment for the Humanities
11. [HBS Working Knowledge -- "Birth of the American Salesman" (Friedman, 2004)](https://www.library.hbs.edu/working-knowledge/birth-of-the-american-salesman), Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
12. [Cambridge Core / Business History Review -- "John H. Patterson and the Sales Strategy of the National Cash Register Company, 1884-1922"](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/business-history-review/article/abs/john-h-patterson-and-the-sales-strategy-of-the-national-cash-register-company-1884-to-1922/0CA6F483DBC1E965907582EF219134FB), Cambridge University Press / Business History Review
13. [Selling Power -- "John Henry Patterson, Sales Pioneer" (February 2010)](https://www.sellingpower.com/2010/02/02/3999/john-henry-patterson-sales-pioneer), Selling Power
14. [Todd Caponi -- "When Did Sales Cold Calling Begin?" (first documented B2B telephone cold call, August 1914)](https://toddcaponi.com/when-did-sales-cold-calling-begin/), Todd Caponi
15. [Head of Sales -- "The History of Sales Methodology, Part 1 (1900-1950s)"](https://www.headofsales.com.au/process-and-method/methodology/the-history-of-sales-methodology-part-1-1900s-1950s/), Head of Sales
16. [Rapitek CRM History -- "History of CRM: 40-Year Timeline + 7 Key Milestones (1980-2026)" (ACT! 1986, Siebel 1993)](https://rapitek.com/en/blog/history-of-crm/), Rapitek
17. [G2 / Learn -- "A Brief History of CRM: How We Got Here and What's Next" (ACT! and Siebel milestones)](https://learn.g2.com/history-of-crm), G2
18. [Salesforce -- company history and founding: Marc Benioff founded Salesforce March 8, 1999 (cloud CRM launch)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce), Wikipedia / Salesforce
19. [LinkedIn -- Sales Navigator product (launched 2014, professional network-based prospecting)](https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/sales-navigator), LinkedIn
20. [Salesloft -- Rhythm AI platform history (Salesloft founded 2011; Conductor AI introduced 2023)](https://www.salesloft.com/platform/rhythm), Salesloft
21. [ZoomInfo -- Copilot Spring 2025 update: 50,000+ users, 60% more demos booked, 90% email response-rate improvement](https://www.zoominfo.com/newsroom/press-releases/zoominfo-copilot-spring-2025-updates), ZoomInfo
22. [McKinsey -- "An unconstrained future: How generative AI could reshape B2B sales" (2024): AI reduces prep time 80%, increases customer-facing time 50%](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/an-unconstrained-future-how-generative-ai-could-reshape-b2b-sales), McKinsey and Company

### Forecasts and exposure studies

23. [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35, National Employment Matrix: 41-3091 Sales representatives of services, except advertising, insurance, financial services, and travel (2025: 1,272.7 thousand; 2035: 1,306.7 thousand; +2.7%)](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=41-3091&ioType=o), Bureau of Labor Statistics
24. [Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), "GPTs are GPTs", occupation-level exposure data occ\_level.csv (O\*NET-SOC 41-3091.00, human-rated β 0.567)](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv), OpenAI

### Historical notes

25. [Cambridge Core / Business History Review -- "John H. Patterson and the Sales Strategy of the National Cash Register Company, 1884-1922"](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/business-history-review/article/abs/john-h-patterson-and-the-sales-strategy-of-the-national-cash-register-company-1884-to-1922/0CA6F483DBC1E965907582EF219134FB), Cambridge University Press / Business History Review
26. [Head of Sales -- "The History of Sales Methodology, Part 1 (1900-1950s)" (First World Salesmanship Congress, Detroit, 1916)](https://www.headofsales.com.au/process-and-method/methodology/the-history-of-sales-methodology-part-1-1900s-1950s/), Head of Sales
27. [Todd Caponi -- "The Great Salesperson Purge of the Early 1920s" (Bureau of Personnel Research 1925 study, 400,000 traveling salesmen)](https://toddcaponi.com/blog-salespurge1920/), Todd Caponi / Bureau of Personnel Research
28. [Salesforce -- company history (founded March 8, 1999, Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, SaaS CRM launch)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce), Wikipedia / Salesforce

### Predecessors & successors

29. [NEH Humanities -- "Traveling Man" (commercial traveler history)](https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/novemberdecember/statement/traveling-man), National Endowment for the Humanities

### Present-day analysis

- [Eloundou et al. 2024: GPTs are GPTs (Science)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130), accessed 2026-06-03
- [O\*NET 30.3: Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel (41-3091.00)](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/41-3091.00), accessed 2026-06-03
- [BLS Employment Projections 2024–34: Sales occupations overview; services-rep segment 3–4% growth](https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2026/article/industry-and-occupational-employment-projections-overview.htm), accessed 2026-06-03
- [Salesforce: State of Sales 2025–2026: 85% of reps with AI agents say AI frees them for higher-value work; high performers 1.7x more likely to use prospecting agents](https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/state-of-sales-report-announcement-2026/), accessed 2026-06-03
- [McKinsey: "An unconstrained future: How generative AI could reshape B2B sales": AI reduces prep time 80%, increases customer-facing time 50% (2024)](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/an-unconstrained-future-how-generative-ai-could-reshape-b2b-sales), accessed 2026-06-03
- [Highspot: "State of Sales Enablement 2025": 78% of B2B orgs adopted AI for sales; companies with AI strategy 2x more likely to see revenue growth](https://www.highspot.com/ai-for-sales/best-ai-sales-tools/), accessed 2026-06-03
- [ZoomInfo: Copilot Spring 2025 update: 50k+ users, 60% more demos booked, 90% email response-rate improvement, 10+ hours saved per week](https://www.zoominfo.com/newsroom/press-releases/zoominfo-copilot-spring-2025-updates), accessed 2026-06-03
- [Salesloft: Rhythm Powered by Conductor AI announcement (Jun 2023) and performance results (Oct 2023): 57% SDR productivity lift, 39% more tasks per day](https://www.salesloft.com/company/newsroom/results-are-in-ai-powered-salesloft-rhythm-drives-meaningful-productivity-and-revenue-outcomes-for-global-sales-organizations), accessed 2026-06-03
- [Gong: Revenue AI OS: automated CRM updates, call summaries, and activity logging save thousands of hours per organization (2025)](https://www.gong.io/), accessed 2026-06-03
- [Salesforce Agentforce: CPQ automation: AI generates accurate quote documents from deal configuration in seconds](https://www.salesforce.com/au/agentforce/), accessed 2026-06-03

How to read these figures: https://futurehistory.earth/methodology. Every figure links to its own source; gaps stay gaps.