Magazine for the professional nail industry.
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i n d u s t ry s tat i s t i c s 2016-2017 THE BIG BOOK | NAILS MAGAZINE | 35 >>> I n d u s t ry a n a lys i s Good question. And the answer is, "It all depends on who you ask." A drive through any town in the U.S. would lead you to believe that there are hundreds of thousands of nail salons in the U.S., practically one on every corner. But a glance through the records of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (the government agency that counts workers in most professions) would make you think that nail care was a growing, though still relatively small, career in the U.S. But we do ultimately come up with these numbers, which are admittedly only estimates, though made with experience, solid data, and a fair amount of intuition. We pull data from four business lists, our own circulation list, online databases, the state boards of cosmetology (ironically, not always the best source for this information), and then we compare our survey data to these lists to come up with something that feels right. The total number of active licenses in the U.S. that you see below to the right represents the best estimate of how many active licensees there are for nail care. We don't believe that more than half of those licensed are actually practicing. For this reason, we don't recommend dividing the number of nail techs by the number of salons to get a precise idea of salon staff size. As always we love to hear from our readers who are interested in more data or additional insights into this data. We offer this information simply as one of many tools to help you understand and run your business. HOW MANY PEOPLE DO NAILS IN THE U.S.? 2016 # NAIL TECHS 2016 # NAIL SALONS Alabama 3,389 951 Alaska 977 174 Arizona 7,874 1,262 Arkansas 2,081 536 California 88,335 9,440 Colorado 8,308 1,026 Connecticut* 2,932 1,052 Delaware 212 207 Dist. of Columbia 206 107 Florida 31,882 6,293 Georgia 7,659 2,093 Hawaii 900 229 Idaho 1,933 309 Illinois 9,949 2,413 Indiana 5,367 1,023 Iowa 1,405 436 Kansas 1,080 509 Kentucky 2,634 616 Louisiana 4,311 1,284 Maine 1,103 171 Maryland 6,015 1,286 Massachusetts 14,795 1,622 Michigan 14,890 1,812 Minnesota 4,744 860 Mississippi 1,668 497 Missouri 5,352 986 Montana 154 184 Nebraska 1,103 379 Nevada 11,000 1,052 New Hampshire 1,108 250 New Jersey 7,870 2,575 New Mexico 1,118 380 New York 16,335 5,569 North Carolina 13,697 2,088 North Dakota 446 125 Ohio 12,332 1,863 Oklahoma 4,388 783 Oregon 11,551 691 Pennsylvania 11,444 2,663 Rhode Island 591 236 South Carolina 1,850 960 South Dakota 1,800 83 Tennessee 6,067 1,250 Texas 42,536 6,931 Utah 370 368 Vermont 204 69 Virginia 7,322 1,615 Washington 7,300 1,512 West Virginia 1,187 183 Wisconsin 1,474 1,023 Wyoming 333 114 393,581 69,738 IF YOU HAD HAVE ANOTHER CAREER BEFORE DOING NAILS, WHAT DID YOU DO? Administration/clerical 14% Medical 13% Retail 9% Hospitality/food service 7% Accounting/bookkeeping/finance 7% Hairdresser/other cosmetology or beauty arts 6% Education 6% General business management 5% Creative arts 5% Other 4% Customer service 3% Child care 3% Armed services/government work, banking, driver, family business/freelance, electrician/electronic engineer, or graphic artist 2%* Law enforcement, real estate, factory work, information technologies, insurance, travel industry, or human resources 1%* Did you have another career before you started doing nails? YES 63% active nail licenses in the U.S. 393,581 *Each career equalled 1%-2% * *