Owensboro, KY

Metropolitan statistical area, CBSA 36980 · 37.66, -87.15

4 findings fired for Owensboro, KY this run, against a typical home value of $213,968 in September 2026 and covered employment of 49,138 in 2026 Q1.

Jobs, OEWS
49,450
as of May 2025
  • 15th pct · 332nd of 393 US metro areas · median 105,500

Total employment in the BLS OEWS occupational tables for this metro area. It is an occupational survey total, not the QCEW payroll count below.

Jobs, county rollup
49,138
as of 2026 Q1

An estimate: the sum of the member counties BLS publishes, not BLS's own metro row, whose boundaries follow each year's delineation. The arithmetic is printed below.

Typical home value
$213,968
as of 2026-09
  • 15th pct · 319th of 379 US metro areas · median $305,707

Zillow Home Value Index, metro file, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.

Typical rent
$1,236
as of 2026-09
  • 17th pct · 314th of 382 US metro areas · median $1,504

Zillow Observed Rent Index, metro file.

Price-to-rent
14.4years of rent
as of 2026-09
  • 24th pct · 288th of 379 US metro areas · median 16.9

typical home value / (typical rent × 12); Zillow ZHVI over ZORI, same month.

Home value, 1-yr
3.5%
as of 2026-09
  • 73rd pct · 103rd of 379 US metro areas · median 2.0%

Zillow's own twelve-month change on the metro row.

A percentile here is a min-max scaling of average rank: the smallest published value in the cohort is 0 and the largest is 100, and tied values share the average of the ranks they span. It is not the share of entities below the value, so 0 means smallest, not none below. Entities that did not publish the metric are outside the cohort entirely and are counted in neither the rank nor its denominator.

Occupation mix #

currentas of May 2025retrieved 2026-10-19

The 30 largest detailed occupations and all 22 SOC major groups in Owensboro, KY, from the bundled BLS OEWS release.

Top 30 detailed occupations by employment, Owensboro, KY, OEWS May 2025.
SOCOccupationJobsMean annual wageLocation quotient
29-1141Registered Nurses1,770not published1.64
41-2031Retail Salespersons1,490$32,0001.21
11-1021General and Operations Managers1,200$90,3501.08
31-1120Home Health and Personal Care Aides1,180$38,3200.86
41-2011Cashiers1,130$27,7001.15
53-7062Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand1,130$41,7901.21
35-3023Fast Food and Counter Workers1,080$26,0700.88
51-9111Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders980$56,1408.13
53-7065Stockers and Order Fillers980$33,0001.09
43-4051Customer Service Representatives920$43,8001.12
31-1131Nursing Assistants890$38,0601.94
53-3032Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers840$53,9701.29
37-2011Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners800$31,7701.14
35-3031Waiters and Waitresses780$36,2601.08
43-9061Office Clerks, General650$38,6800.83
35-2011Cooks, Fast Food620$24,5603.05
33-9032Security Guards560$35,6901.38
43-3031Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks560$48,1501.29
25-9045Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary520$33,8001.15
43-6013Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants520$39,6101.69
41-1011First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers500$46,4701.40
49-9071Maintenance and Repair Workers, General500$48,4001.03
49-9041Industrial Machinery Mechanics480$67,3503.40
25-2021Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education470$58,7901.06
43-6014Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive470$42,6500.87
35-1012First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers460$38,4301.18
35-2021Food Preparation Workers460$28,2201.63
35-2014Cooks, Restaurant440$32,2400.98
43-5071Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks430$44,9501.66
51-4121Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers410$50,6903.11
All 22 SOC major groups, Owensboro, KY, OEWS May 2025.
SOCOccupationJobsMean annual wageLocation quotient
43-0000Office and Administrative Support Occupations5,750$45,3401.02
35-0000Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations4,860$30,3001.12
53-0000Transportation and Material Moving Occupations4,840$43,7701.11
51-0000Production Occupations4,770$50,5501.75
41-0000Sales and Related Occupations4,310$41,8801.01
29-0000Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations4,140$94,3201.33
31-0000Healthcare Support Occupations2,990$39,5201.19
25-0000Educational Instruction and Library Occupations2,840$51,7700.98
11-0000Management Occupations2,700$105,0900.76
49-0000Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Occupations2,290$58,7401.18
47-0000Construction and Extraction Occupations1,860$55,4400.91
13-0000Business and Financial Operations Occupations1,840$73,9900.55
37-0000Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance Occupations1,590$33,9201.10
33-0000Protective Service Occupations1,130$44,2400.94
21-0000Community and Social Service Occupations980$53,8701.15
39-0000Personal Care and Service Occupations760$32,2200.73
15-0000Computer and Mathematical Occupations530$89,3300.31
17-0000Architecture and Engineering Occupations420$89,5200.51
27-0000Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations350$47,8200.54
19-0000Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations290$74,4800.61
23-0000Legal Occupations190$92,0800.46
45-0000Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Occupations40$46,5100.28

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, metropolitan area tables, committed to this repository rather than fetched. A location quotient above 1 means the occupation is more concentrated here than in the United States as a whole; wages are means, not medians, and BLS suppresses a wage where its sample is too thin.

Housing #

currentas of 2026-09retrieved 2026-10-19

The typical home in the Owensboro, KY metro was worth $213,968 in September 2026.

25 months to September 2026. Rent: $1,236 in September 2026.

Zillow Home Value Index and Observed Rent Index, metro files, joined by the RegionID recorded in the place manifest. Both are smoothed indices of the middle third of the market, not sale prices.

Employment, rolled up from member counties #

currentas of 2026 Q1retrieved 2026-10-19

About 49,138 covered jobs across the 2 member counties BLS published.

  • jobs = sum of QCEW third-month employment across the 2 of 2 member counties BLS publishes.
  • 49,138 = 47,386 + 1,752
The 2 counties the place manifest assigns to CBSA 36980.
CountyFIPS
Daviess County, KY21059
McLean County, KY21149

The place manifest names 2 member counties for this metro, fewer than the 5 a cohort needs before a percentile means anything, so no within-metro position is offered for its counties. The positions above are against the other 392 metropolitan areas, which is a cohort that does not depend on the county pull.

There are no QCEW metro employment totals here, and that is a property of the data rather than an omission: BLS does publish MSA area codes (C####), but lib/economy's QCEW reader handles only county (SSCCC), state (SS000) and national (US000) rows at aggregation levels 74, 54 and 14, and the /api/economy route regex rejects anything else. So this figure is a sum of member counties, labelled an estimate, with every county it could not count named.

National indicator context #

currentretrieved 2026-10-19

None of these series is keyed to this metro area. They are national, gauge, single-state or port series, shown as context for the numbers above.

The national indicator set, filtered by lens only.
IndicatorLatestUnitStatus
Mississippi River at Memphis, stagenot publishedftno data
Mississippi River at St. Louis, stagenot publishedftno data
Ohio River at Louisville, stage17.95ftok
Missouri River at St. Joseph, stagenot publishedftno data
Colorado River below Hoover Dam, flow (Hoover releases)5,170.00ft³/sok
Texas reservoirs, statewide percent full72.20%ok
Laredo truck crossings, monthly258,700.00trucksok
Los Angeles + Long Beach container volume, annual10,513,167.00TEUwatch
Containerships waiting for a berth, all US ports7.00shipsok
Shanghai to Los Angeles container rate7,848.00$ per 40 ft boxwatch
US diesel retail pricenot published$ per gallonno data
WTI crude oil, spot101.91$ per barrelwatch
30-year fixed mortgage rate7.40%watch
Housing starts, annual rate1,275.00thousands of unitsok
Building permits, annual rate1,403.00thousands of unitsok
Case-Shiller US home price index337.31index, Jan 2000 = 100ok
Unemployment rate4.20%ok
US goods and services trade balance, monthly-105,572.00$ millionsok
Retail sales excluding food services, monthly652,115.00$ millionsok

lib/indicators has no geographic selection: every registry entry is a United States, gauge, Texas, port, crossing or world series, and no entry is metro-keyed. Reading these as this metro's own readings would be wrong.

What changed #

currentretrieved 2026-10-19

Owensboro, KY: 4 findings, 4 noted

  1. noteOwensboro, KY's typical asking rent rose 1.1% from $1,223 in August 2026 to $1,236 in September 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

    Period 2026-09.
    Show the arithmetic
    • +1.1% = (1235.7738095238094 - 1222.6517340349158) / 1222.6517340349158 × 100
    • 1235.7738095238094 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-09
    • 1222.6517340349158 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08

  2. noteThe next Unemployment rate (BLS Employment Situation, monthly) covering Owensboro, KY is due between 2026-10-30 and 2026-11-13, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern.

    Show the arithmetic
    • window = 2026-10-30 to 2026-11-13, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern

    estimated from the publisher's past release pattern; not an announced date

  3. noteThe next Zillow ZHVI typical home value (monthly) covering Owensboro, KY is due between 2026-11-14 and 2026-11-21, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern.

    Show the arithmetic
    • window = 2026-11-14 to 2026-11-21, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern

    estimated from the publisher's past release pattern; not an announced date

  4. noteThe next Zillow ZORI typical rent (monthly) covering Owensboro, KY is due between 2026-11-14 and 2026-11-21, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern.

    Show the arithmetic
    • window = 2026-11-14 to 2026-11-21, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern

    estimated from the publisher's past release pattern; not an announced date

The full Owensboro, KY brief, with the arithmetic behind every sentence.

Metro briefs are thinner by construction: with no QCEW metro path, their findings come from Zillow's metro home value and rent rows, the county rollup, and nearby crossings and ports.

Sources #

  • publishedOccupational Employment and Wage StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statisticsopen the source
    MSA 36980, all occupations · period May 2025 · retrieved 2026-10-19
  • estimateQuarterly Census of Employment and WagesU.S. Bureau of Labor Statisticsopen the source
    · retrieved 2026-10-19 · jobs = sum of QCEW third-month employment across the 2 of 2 member counties BLS publishes. 49,138 = 47,386 + 1,752
  • publishedZillow Home Value Index (ZHVI)Zillow Researchopen the source
    Metro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv · period 2026-09 · retrieved 2026-10-19
  • publishedZillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI)Zillow Researchopen the source
    Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv · period 2026-09 · retrieved 2026-10-19
  • estimateZillow Home Value Index (ZHVI)Zillow Researchopen the source
    · retrieved 2026-10-19 · typical home value / (typical rent × 12); Zillow ZHVI over ZORI, same month
  • estimateZillow Home Value Index (ZHVI)Zillow Researchopen the source
    · retrieved 2026-10-19 · month-over-month percent change = (newest month − previous month) / |previous month| × 100, from Zillow's own published month columns
  • estimateZillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI)Zillow Researchopen the source
    · retrieved 2026-10-19 · month-over-month percent change = (newest month − previous month) / |previous month| × 100, from Zillow's own published month columns

Citations

  • U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. series MSA 36980, all occupations. period May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm. accessed 2026-10-19.
  • U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. https://www.bls.gov/cew/. accessed 2026-10-19. estimate computed by Embedding Atlas: jobs = sum of QCEW third-month employment across the 2 of 2 member counties BLS publishes. 49,138 = 47,386 + 1,752.
  • Zillow Research. Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI). series Metro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv. period 2026-09. https://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zhvi/Metro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv. accessed 2026-10-19.
  • Zillow Research. Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI). series Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv. period 2026-09. https://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zori/Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv. accessed 2026-10-19.
  • Zillow Research. Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI). https://www.zillow.com/research/data/. accessed 2026-10-19. estimate computed by Embedding Atlas: typical home value / (typical rent × 12); Zillow ZHVI over ZORI, same month.
  • Zillow Research. Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI). https://www.zillow.com/research/data/. accessed 2026-10-19. estimate computed by Embedding Atlas: month-over-month percent change = (newest month − previous month) / |previous month| × 100, from Zillow's own published month columns.
  • Zillow Research. Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI). https://www.zillow.com/research/data/. accessed 2026-10-19. estimate computed by Embedding Atlas: month-over-month percent change = (newest month − previous month) / |previous month| × 100, from Zillow's own published month columns.

What these numbers are not

  • There is no metro market report: MarketReport describes a county or a state, and BLS QCEW's own metro rows follow each year's delineation, so they are not used here. The metro page shows Zillow's own metro rows and a county-rollup employment estimate with its arithmetic instead.
  • Metro employment is an ESTIMATE: the sum of the member counties BLS did publish, not BLS QCEW's own metro row, whose boundaries follow each year's delineation. Withheld counties are named and excluded, never zeroed.
  • The indicator block is the NATIONAL set, filtered only by lens. None of these series is keyed to this place: they are United States, gauge, single-state or port series and they are shown as context, not as this place's own readings.

Page assembled 2026-10-19T17:55:53.781Z. Place identity tables pulled 2026-10-01.