Employment in core B2B sales occupations grew 7.2% from May 2022 to May 2025, to 3.47 million

Hollerly analysis of BLS OEWS employment data, CPS monthly data and SEC EDGAR 10-K filings, 2019 to 2026

Key findings

• Employment across five core B2B sales occupations rose from 3,236,070 in May 2022 to 3,467,870 in May 2025, a 7.2% increase, compared with 5.1% for all US occupations.
• Sales manager employment grew 18.8% between May 2022 and May 2025, and services sales rep employment grew 16.8%.
• Wholesale and manufacturing sales rep employment was 2.8% (non-technical) and 2.1% (technical) lower in May 2025 than in May 2022.
• The share of 10-K annual reports mentioning "artificial intelligence" rose from 13.7% of filings in 2022 to 47.2% in 2025.
• 857 10-K filings mentioned "generative AI" in 2025 (12.8% of all 10-Ks), up from 2 in 2022.
• Telemarketer employment fell 39.5% between May 2022 and May 2025, continuing a decline that began well before 2022.

Why May 2022 is the reference point

Generative AI tools reached a mass audience in late 2022. The May 2022 OEWS survey is the last full employment snapshot taken before that, and May 2025 is the latest release. Comparing the two shows how sales headcount moved during the first stretch of widespread AI adoption at work.

Core B2B sales employment grew

Across five occupations central to B2B selling (sales managers, services sales reps, both wholesale and manufacturing rep categories, and sales engineers), employment grew 7.2% between May 2022 and May 2025. That is faster than the 5.1% growth in total US employment over the same period.

The growth was concentrated. Sales managers added 100,690 jobs and services sales reps added 180,260. Wholesale and manufacturing reps declined modestly, sales engineers fell 13.2% and telemarketers fell 39.5%. Telemarketing has been shrinking for more than a decade, so the recent decline is a continuation of a long-running trend.

AI in annual reports

Public companies have written about AI far more often over the same period. In 2022, 13.7% of 10-K filings contained the phrase "artificial intelligence." By 2025 the share was 47.2%. The phrase "generative AI" appeared in 2 10-Ks in 2022 and 857 in 2025.

These two trends are shown together for context. The data does not show that AI adoption caused sales employment to rise or fall. Hiring depends on interest rates, company growth, sector mix and many other factors, and a 10-K mention says nothing about how a company uses AI in its sales team.

The latest monthly reading

OEWS is published once a year. The monthly Current Population Survey gives a more recent, broader read that includes retail and self-employed sales workers. CPS counted an average of 14,194 thousand people employed in sales and related occupations from January to September 2026, compared with 14,155 thousand in the same months of 2025. The annual average was 14,316 thousand in 2022 and 14,159 thousand in 2025. On this broad measure, sales employment has been roughly flat since 2022, still below its 2019 level of 15,582 thousand.

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About the data

• Employment (primary): BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), national cross-industry estimates, May 2019 to May 2025 (May 2025 is the latest release). Occupations: Sales Managers (11-2022), Sales Representatives of Services (41-3091), Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products (41-4012), Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products (41-4011), Sales Engineers (41-9031), plus Telemarketers (41-9041), all sales and related (41-0000) and all occupations (00-0000). "Core B2B" is the sum of the first five.
• Employment (monthly context): BLS Current Population Survey series LNU02032206 (employed, sales and related occupations) and LNU02000000 (total employed), not seasonally adjusted. Annual figures are BLS annual averages; January to September averages are computed by Hollerly from published monthly values.
• AI mentions: 10-K filings in SEC EDGAR containing the exact phrases "artificial intelligence" and "generative AI," counted as unique original 10-K filings by filing year (amendments excluded; text includes exhibits). Denominator: all 10-K filings in the EDGAR full index for each year.
• Limitations: This is a descriptive comparison, not a causal analysis. OEWS excludes the self-employed and pools three years of survey panels. The 2018 SOC change means services sales reps are tracked from 2019. CPS levels shift with annual population control updates (including January 2026), and October 2025 CPS data were not collected. A phrase match in a 10-K can appear anywhere in the filing, including risk factors.

Sources

• BLS OEWS national estimates, May 2025: bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip
• BLS OEWS national estimates, May 2022: bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip
• BLS Current Population Survey: bls.gov/cps/
• SEC EDGAR 10-K filings: sec.gov/edgar/search/
• SEC EDGAR full index: sec.gov/Archives/edgar/full-index/