In January 2007, there were 1,682,641 professionals employed in the nation’s 370,215 beauty salons, barber shops, skin care salons and nail salons. The typical salon is a small full service salon with 5 stations, 3 full-time professionals and 2 part-time professionals. Salon owners report an average of 127 clients per week. 

The salon industry is a job-seekers market. "Salon owners reported 484,660 job openings were filled during 2006. This represents an average of 1.3 openings per salon. Nearly 40 percent of all new positions were filled by inexperienced workers."

"Even with significant levels of hiring, nearly three-quarters of the salons that tried to fill positions were not able to find qualified applicants. The supply of skilled professionals in the industry continues to fall short of the demand. This is a chronic shortage that has been reported in earlier surveys of the cosmetology industry."

"The cosmetology industry employs individuals in every town and city in the country. No community exists without barbershops and hair salons. They range from single chair operations to large salons with dozens of workstations."

"The universe probably underestimates employment in the industry. Unincorporated individuals who may work out of their home are not included, nor are organizations that might provide personal care services, but are in a business that is unrelated to the personal care industry. Examples include department stores, cruise ships or resorts, and retirement communities."

"The salon industry employs nearly 1.7 million professionals, over half of whom are fulltime experienced employees who work as cosmetologists. While these professionals tend to move around within the industry, there were more vacated positions in 2006 than well-prepared entrants to fill the positions. A sizeable number of employees (27 percent) leave each year with plans to open their own salon, work from their home, or rent a booth and become independent contractors. This suggests that the industry provides the option to start one’s own business."

"Of the various specialties, the increasing demand for nail technicians appears to be most substantial. While nail technicians currently make up only 9.7 percent of the current industry employees, nearly 18 percent of the job openings are in that area."

"The data lead us to believe that growth in the industry is constrained by too few new entrants to the profession. Demand for cosmetology services is estimated to expand at least at the same rate as the growth of the population."