Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators job market in Kentucky
Industry trends, wages and hiring signals.
The headline
Kentucky industry employment changed 0.5 percentage points above the U.S. benchmark
A data-driven view of the industries that employ Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators in Kentucky.
Occupation pay
What Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators 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
$73,120Kentucky- Middle 50% of published wages
- $51,040 – $73,200
- U.S. median annual wage
- $70,070
- 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 Suppressed or unavailable BLS values remain unpublished rather than being estimated.
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: 35,643 represented establishments, 91.33% of the published industry mix.
Local research
What the data shows for rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators in Kentucky
Findings describe the published observation periods shown below. Research published Oct 10, 2026.
Industry groups are pulling in opposite directions
A single industry employment figure combines an increase and a decrease in Kentucky in January to March 2026. Among the leading industry groups for this occupation, Construction changed +4.1% year over year and Trade, transportation, and utilities changed -0.6%. The groups examined cover 99.4% of the occupation's national industry mix.
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+0.1%
- U.S. · latest-quarter benchmark-0.4%
The chart will load automatically. Published values remain available in this report.
View every published value
| Quarter | Kentucky | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 Q2 | +0.4% | 100% |
| 2024 Q3 | +1.4% | 100% |
| 2024 Q4 | +0.3% | 100% |
| 2025 Q1 | +0.2% | 100% |
| 2025 Q2 | +0.6% | 100% |
| 2025 Q3 | -0.5% | 100% |
| 2025 Q4 | -0.1% | 100% |
| 2026 Q1 | +0.1% | 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
- -0.4%
Quarters with no published value are omitted rather than interpolated.
Industry context
Where Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators Work
The occupation mix determines which Kentucky industries are weighted into this view.
| Industry group | Occupation mix | Employment change | Establishments | Avg. weekly industry wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade, transportation, and utilities | 67.2% | -0.6% | 30,548 | $1,148 |
| State and local | 23.6% | +1.1% | 5,095 | $1,110 |
| Construction | 8.1% | +4.1% | 12,167 | $1,420 |
| Mining and logging | 0.6% | -7.9% | 505 | $1,669 |
Which industries are growing?
2 weighted industries are growing
Only weighted industries with a published positive Kentucky employment change are listed.
- Construction+4.1%
- State and local+1.1%
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 Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators 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
Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators in Kentucky FAQs
Each answer is limited to what QCEW 2026 Q1 actually publishes for this state.
Is employment growing for Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators in Kentucky?
The available QCEW measure is not direct occupation employment. Employment across the Kentucky industries weighted to Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators changed +0.1% year over year in January to March 2026, compared with -0.4% nationwide.
Are wages for Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators rising in Kentucky?
QCEW does not publish pay for Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators in this view. Average weekly wages across the weighted industries changed +1.6% 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 Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators 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
- Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators
- SOC code
- 47-4061
- State
- Kentucky
- QCEW release label
- QCEW 2026 Q1
- Data period
- 2026 Q1
- State industry employment, year over year
- +0.1%State data coverage 100%
- U.S. benchmark, year over year
- -0.4%
- Difference from U.S. benchmark
- +0.5 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
- -0.4%State data coverage 100%
- Average weekly industry wage, year over year
- +1.6%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/rail-track-laying-and-maintenance-equipment-operators/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.