State labor market
Kentucky labor market
Current statewide hiring activity plus occupation-level employment and pay for Kentucky. OEWS answers what occupations pay and how many workers BLS estimates are employed; the postings measures show more current statewide hiring activity.
Current statewide signal
Kentucky hiring snapshot
Indeed job-postings measures across all occupations in Kentucky.
Indeed job postings only. Postings are not a count of all vacancies or hires, Indeed does not cover the whole labor market, and this is statewide activity across all occupations, not an occupation health score. Each series is seasonally adjusted and indexed to its own February 1, 2020 level, so a higher index does not mean more jobs than another state. Source: Indeed Hiring Lab · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved Sep 26, 2026. JobMarketHealth calculates the displayed changes and differences.
Occupations & pay
Where Kentucky workers are employed
The eight largest occupations in our tracked OEWS catalog, by BLS estimated employment. These are estimated jobs held, not current openings or a count of unique people.
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand
57,930estimated employmentGeneral and operations managers
52,100estimated employmentMiscellaneous assemblers and fabricators
47,320estimated employmentPay examples
Selected occupation pay examples
The same familiar occupations on every state page. Each U.S. figure uses the same measure (annual or hourly) as the Kentucky figure beside it.
- Registered nurses$81,040/yr Kentucky median annualU.S. $97,550/yr
- Software developers$109,010/yr Kentucky median annualU.S. $135,980/yr
- Electricians$59,720/yr Kentucky median annualU.S. $63,190/yr
- Accountants and auditors$75,270/yr Kentucky median annualU.S. $83,680/yr
- Elementary school teachers, except special education$60,610/yr Kentucky median annualU.S. $63,970/yr
- Marketing managers$128,930/yr Kentucky median annualU.S. $166,790/yr
Pay compared with the U.S.
How Kentucky occupation pay differs
Up to 5 occupations per side with at least 1,000 estimated Kentucky workers and published state and U.S. median annual wages, ordered by the largest percentage gap. Nominal wages, not adjusted for cost of living; not a demand or overall market ranking, and not a test of statistical significance.
Higher median than U.S.
- Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers$350,950/yr state median · 6,260 workers+51.2%vs. U.S. $232,140/yr
- Maintenance workers, machinery$76,710/yr state median · 2,920 workers+26.1%vs. U.S. $60,850/yr
- Physicians, all other$327,390/yr state median · 3,340 workers+23.1%vs. U.S. $265,930/yr
- Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic$54,960/yr state median · 5,510 workers+16.5%vs. U.S. $47,180/yr
- Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders$58,050/yr state median · 2,670 workers+15.5%vs. U.S. $50,270/yr
Lower median than U.S.
- Firefighters$37,150/yr state median · 5,150 workers-37.3%vs. U.S. $59,280/yr
- Lawyers$101,550/yr state median · 5,770 workers-36.4%vs. U.S. $159,670/yr
- Personal financial advisors$67,150/yr state median · 2,040 workers-36.1%vs. U.S. $105,070/yr
- First-line supervisors of firefighting and prevention workers$60,850/yr state median · 1,250 workers-34.9%vs. U.S. $93,530/yr
- Tax preparers$36,620/yr state median · 1,080 workers-33.3%vs. U.S. $54,920/yr
Explore occupations
Occupation pay in Kentucky
Search every tracked OEWS occupation record for Kentucky. Links marked “Kentucky report” open a detailed state report; links marked “National report” open the U.S. occupation report because no Kentucky report is available.
662 occupations · showing 1–25
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), reference period May 2025; our data connection last checked Sep 23, 2026. OEWS covers wage and salary jobs and excludes the self-employed. “Top-coded” means BLS publishes only that the wage is at or above its reporting ceiling; “Not released” means BLS withheld the estimate. Missing values are never estimated. These occupation wages are separate from the QCEW industry trends on detailed occupation pages.