What the numbers say
Of the 14 common small-business types the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks for Kentucky, 7 added jobs over the year and 7 lost them. Food trucks & mobile food led, with employment up 17.1% across 148 establishments paying an average of $577 a week. Coffee shops & cafés came second at +9.8%. At the other end, dry cleaning & laundry lost 7.0% of jobs.
| Business type | Jobs, yr/yr | Establishments | Avg weekly wage | Typical cost to open |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food trucks & mobile food | +17.1% | 148 | $577 | $50k–$300k |
| Coffee shops & cafés | +9.8% | 809 | $387 | $50k–$300k |
| Gyms & fitness studios | +3.7% | 496 | $320 | $30k–$200k |
| Landscaping services | +3.5% | 1,431 | $883 | $10k–$50k |
| Pet care & grooming | +1.0% | 376 | $507 | $10k–$50k |
| Full-service restaurants | +0.8% | 3,380 | $483 | $50k–$300k |
| Quick-service restaurants | +0.1% | 3,848 | $402 | $50k–$300k |
| Bars & taverns | -0.6% | 403 | $456 | $50k–$300k |
| Auto repair shops | -0.6% | 1,001 | $1,064 | $50k–$300k |
| Hair & beauty salons | -0.9% | 718 | $650 | $20k–$100k |
| Child day care | -0.9% | 1,045 | $501 | $30k–$150k |
| Cleaning & janitorial | -1.9% | 978 | $610 | $10k–$50k |
| Nail salons | -4.6% | 152 | $618 | $20k–$100k |
| Dry cleaning & laundry | -7.0% | 125 | $573 | $25k–$150k |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, private sector, Kentucky, 2026 Q1. Job change is over the year. Cost to open is Neur's planning range for the business type, not a quote.
What it means if you are opening one
Food trucks & mobile food businesses are being paid for. Employers do not add 17.1% more staff without the revenue to cover it, so demand in Kentucky is real and growing. The question for a new entrant is the neighborhood, not the state: 148 establishments already operate here, and the competition per resident varies more between cities than between states. Plan on $50k–$300k to open.
The quieter bet: coffee shops & cafés. Growth of +9.8% with an average wage of $387 a week and $50k–$300k to open. Second place in a ranking like this often has less new competition than first place, because everyone read the same headline.
Hiring will cost the most in auto repair shops. At $1,064 a week on average, it pays the highest wages of the types tracked here. Budget staff at local rates, not the national average; the report does this automatically for your city.
Shrinking is not the same as closed. Bars & taverns, Auto repair shops, Hair & beauty salons, Child day care, Cleaning & janitorial, Nail salons, Dry cleaning & laundry lost jobs over the year in Kentucky. That can mean a market with room to differentiate as weaker operators exit, or a market people are leaving. The competitor map and reviews for your city tell you which; the state number alone does not.
A state ranking tells you which way the wind blows. It does not tell you whether the corner you are looking at has the households, the income and the gap in competition to support one more. That is the part a Neur report does for one business in one city, with the Neur Score™ and the moves that would raise it.
This page is generated from the BLS feed and rewritten when a new quarter publishes; the prose is drafted with AI assistance from the figures above and reviewed by Neur. Live data page for Kentucky · All states
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