Also called: Secret Shopper
Poses as a regular customer to secretly rate stores, restaurants, and hotels.
Mystery shoppers visit businesses, note service, cleanliness, and wait times, and write detailed reports. It is almost always side income, not a full-time job.
Usually small payments per visit plus reimbursed meals or purchases.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
No formal education, about 0 years after high school. No requirements; sign up with legitimate mystery shopping companies (beware scams that ask for money).
Ways in: Self-taught. Training cost: Under $15k.
Growing slowly. No separate BLS projection; estimate based on related occupations.
Medium risk in 5 years, high in 10. Review mining, cameras and AI analytics already replace many store audits; remaining gigs are small side income.
Age 18+. One way to start: Sign up with mystery shopping companies that belong to MSPA, like BestMark; avoid any that charge fees
Classes: English (writing), Business, Marketing, Psychology.
Official data: O*NET occupation 13-1161.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.