Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders job market in Kentucky
Industry trends, wages and hiring signals.
The headline
Industry employment fell while average weekly industry wages rose
A data-driven view of the industries that employ Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in Kentucky.
Occupation pay
What Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders earn in Kentucky
BLS OEWS occupation-level pay estimates for this role — separate from the industry wage trends used elsewhere in this report.
Median annual wage
$47,170Kentucky- Middle 50% of published wages
- $36,560 – $53,690
- U.S. median annual wage
- $48,250
- Reference period
- May 2025
The middle 50% is the 25th-to-75th percentile wage range, not an experience-level band. Suppressed or unavailable BLS values remain unpublished rather than being estimated.
Pay around Kentucky
How median pay varies by metro area
Published BLS OEWS metro estimates for Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders, compared with the Kentucky median of $47,170.
Elizabethtown, KY$59,800+26.8% vs. state
Bowling Green, KY$48,840+3.5% vs. state
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN$48,560+2.9% vs. state
Clarksville, TN-KY$48,510+2.8% vs. state
Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN$48,070+1.9% vs. state
Paducah, KY-IL$47,580+0.9% vs. state
View 3 more published metro areas
Lexington-Fayette, KY$45,470−3.6% vs. state
Owensboro, KY$44,340−6.0% vs. state
Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH$40,590−13.9% vs. state
Areas are ordered by published median wage for readability, not as an overall job-market ranking. The vertical marker is the Kentucky median. Some BLS metropolitan areas cross state lines, so a metro estimate can cover workers in more than one state.
Verified snapshot
Market at a Glance
Key changes in Kentucky’s weighted industry mix.
Percentage-point gaps use the original published values and are rounded once; subtracting the rounded percentages can give a slightly different result.
Published coverage: 18,199 represented establishments, 86.17% of the published industry mix.
Local research
What the data shows for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in Kentucky
Findings describe the published observation periods shown below. Research published Oct 10, 2026.
The highest-paying metro has a smaller employment market
Elizabethtown, KY leads the Kentucky metro comparison on median annual pay at $59,800, with estimated employment of 90. Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN leads on employment size at 820, while its median pay is $48,070. Across 6 metro estimates with both measures in OEWS May 2025, the highest-paying metro's median is 24.4% higher than the largest employment market's. Employment counts describe existing jobs, not available vacancies.
OEWS May 2025 · BLS OEWSSome metro estimates cross state lines. Higher nominal pay does not establish better living standards or better chances of finding a job.
Industry groups are pulling in opposite directions
The leading industry groups examined represent 99.5% of this occupation's national industry mix. Their Kentucky employment changes were mixed in January to March 2026: +4.1% year over year in Construction, compared with -3.4% in Manufacturing. Those opposing movements are combined in the overall industry measure.
January to March 2026 · BLS QCEWEmployment and establishment counts moved apart
Kentucky's industry employment and establishment measures moved in opposite directions in January to March 2026. Employment in the industries that employ this occupation changed -2.4% year over year, while the establishment count changed +2.4%. These figures describe the divergence without establishing its reason.
January to March 2026 · BLS QCEWIndustry measures describe the industries associated with this occupation. They are not direct occupation employment, current openings or a state-level Job Market Health score. Findings describe published data and do not establish causes. Methodology
Employment trends
Kentucky industry employment over time
Year-over-year change in the weighted industries. The U.S. line is the latest-quarter benchmark because a comparable national quarterly history is not published here.
- Kentucky · 2026 Q1-2.4%
- U.S. · latest-quarter benchmark-0.9%
The chart will load automatically. Published values remain available in this report.
View every published value
| Quarter | Kentucky | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 Q2 | +1.1% | 100% |
| 2024 Q3 | +0.6% | 100% |
| 2024 Q4 | -0.3% | 100% |
| 2025 Q1 | -1.3% | 100% |
| 2025 Q2 | -1.1% | 100% |
| 2025 Q3 | -1.8% | 100% |
| 2025 Q4 | -1.5% | 100% |
| 2026 Q1 | -2.4% | 100% |
How to read this chart
State trend and national reference
The solid line follows Kentucky’s published year-over-year industry employment changes by quarter. The dashed U.S. line is a latest-quarter reference, not a second time series.
- Published quarters
- 8
- Earliest quarter
- 2024 Q2
- Latest quarter
- 2026 Q1
- U.S. benchmark
- -0.9%
Quarters with no published value are omitted rather than interpolated.
Industry context
Where Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders Work
The occupation mix determines which Kentucky industries are weighted into this view.
| Industry group | Occupation mix | Employment change | Establishments | Avg. weekly industry wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing | 67.5% | -3.4% | 7,646 | $1,566 |
| Other services | 18.5% | -0.5% | 10,553 | $923 |
| Trade, transportation, and utilities | 8.2% | -0.6% | 30,548 | $1,148 |
| Professional and business services | 3.3% | +0.7% | 32,895 | $1,427 |
| Construction | 1.8% | +4.1% | 12,167 | $1,420 |
| Leisure and hospitality | 0.3% | +0.7% | 12,252 | $497 |
Which industries are growing?
3 weighted industries are growing
Only weighted industries with a published positive Kentucky employment change are listed.
- Construction+4.1%
- Leisure and hospitality+0.7%
- Professional and business services+0.7%
The remaining weighted industries published a flat or negative change in January to March 2026.
Current Kentucky context
Current Kentucky Market Signals
Statewide indicators for all occupations in Kentucky. They are not Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders demand and are not part of the Job Market Health score.
Statewide job postings
Indeed job postings · Kentucky
Recent hiring-demand context · separate from the health score
Total postings index (seasonally adjusted) by observation date · baseline 100
The chart will load automatically. Published values remain available in this report.
View values: Indeed postings index
| Observation date | Index (Feb 2020 = 100) |
|---|---|
| Jul 24, 2026 | 100.82 |
| Jul 31, 2026 | 100.32 |
| Aug 7, 2026 | 99.22 |
| Aug 14, 2026 | 98.73 |
| Aug 21, 2026 | 98.90 |
| Aug 28, 2026 | 99.06 |
| Sep 4, 2026 | 99.83 |
| Sep 11, 2026 | 101.12 |
| Sep 18, 2026 | 101.43 |
| Sep 25, 2026 | 102.87 |
| Oct 2, 2026 | 102.25 |
| Oct 9, 2026 | 102.87 |
| Oct 16, 2026 | 102.68 |
| Oct 23, 2026 | 102.78 |
This is statewide demand across all occupations, not demand for this specific job. Postings are not a count of vacancies or hires, and Indeed does not cover the entire labor market.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab · CC BY 4.0. Seven-day average, seasonally adjusted; publisher refreshes weekly and may revise history. Retrieved Nov 1, 2026 · saved source copy. JobMarketHealth calculates the displayed changes and samples weekly observations for the chart.
Career context
Related occupations
Related roles from the occupation’s published O*NET profile.
Questions answered by this release
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in Kentucky FAQs
Each answer is limited to what QCEW 2026 Q1 actually publishes for this state.
Is employment growing for Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in Kentucky?
The available QCEW measure is not direct occupation employment. Employment across the Kentucky industries weighted to Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders changed -2.4% year over year in January to March 2026, compared with -0.9% nationwide.
Are wages for Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders rising in Kentucky?
QCEW does not publish pay for Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in this view. Average weekly wages across the weighted industries changed +2.5% year over year; that must not be read as an occupation salary change.
How complete is this Kentucky industry view?
The three core state trends each meet the site’s coverage floor; the minimum published coverage is 100% of the occupation’s industry mix.
Does this page show current Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders openings?
No. QCEW measures industry employment, establishments and wages. Any postings, news or WARN figures shown here are statewide context and are not occupation-specific openings.
Methodology & sourcesQCEW 2026 Q1 · coverage 100% · full evidence record
Methodology & Sources
Derived by JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix. This is occupation-weighted industry context, not direct occupation employment and not a count of current job openings.
- Occupation
- Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders
- SOC code
- 51-9124
- State
- Kentucky
- QCEW release label
- QCEW 2026 Q1
- Data period
- 2026 Q1
- State industry employment, year over year
- -2.4%State data coverage 100%
- U.S. benchmark, year over year
- -0.9%
- Difference from U.S. benchmark
- -1.5 percentage pointsPercentage-point gaps use the original published values and are rounded once; subtracting the rounded percentages can give a slightly different result.
- Establishments, year over year
- +2.4%State data coverage 100%
- Average weekly industry wage, year over year
- +2.5%State data coverage 100%
- Industry mix vintage
- EP-2025-2035
- BLS publication date
- Aug 28, 2026
- Source verification
- Verified against the committed source snapshotVerified Sep 17, 2026
- Canonical record URL
- https://jobmarkethealth.com/occupations/coating-painting-and-spraying-machine-setters-operators-and-tenders/kentucky#evidence-record
- Derived by
- JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix
MethodologyBLS QCEWHow to citeQCEW state context release, 2026 Q1
Weighted industry conditions are not direct occupation employment, occupation wages, current openings or a state-level Job Market Health score. No causal explanation is inferred.