Technology has the potential to dramatically change the employment landscape in America—and leave a lot of workers without jobs in the process, says a study released Thursday.

The Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute, which performed a study for New York-based financial services firm Cornerstone Capital Group, says a large portion of workers in retail are at risk of becoming “stranded workers” in the near future.

The institute’s study, “Retail Automation: Stranded Workers? Opportunities and Risks for Labor and Automation,” shows that 6 million to 7.5 million of the 16 million retail workers in America are at risk of losing their jobs to automation. Retail workers make up 10 percent of the country’s working population and generate 6 percent of the gross domestic product.

Women will be hurt the most by the changes in the marketplace because they hold 73 percent of these jobs. Thirty-six percent of retail workers currently receive some form of public assistance and, contrary to perceptions, 71 percent of retail workers are full-time employees, according to the institute.

Determining how companies are handling these changes is difficult because there’s a lack of transparency by large retailers. “A lack of disclosure on key labor metrics by retailers puts investors in the dark on how these companies are responding and what the fate of their workers could be,” the report says.

The report analyzed 30 large retailers and found most considering using in-store technology, such as self-checkout and smart shelves that track inventory.

“In some cases, technology is complementing labor by freeing workers from mundane tasks and facilitating a more personalized customer experience. In others, technology has the potential to automate a significant part of the sales process and render a range of jobs redundant. Taken together, store closures and technology have the potential to dramatically alter the employment landscape in America,” the report says.

“The retail landscape is changing rapidly, and investors need to understand the social and governance issues impacting valuations for public companies in this sector,” said Erika Karp, founder and CEO of Cornerstone, in a statement. “Retailers are facing a perfect storm: They need to balance demand for wage increases with the negative optics of future job losses. The winners in retail will be companies that provide recruitment, retention and training for workers and innovate with forward-thinking future store strategies.”

The Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute is a nonprofit organization that does research to help investors and policy makers make good decisions.