1 in 5 Americans Still Need Government Permission To Work

Excerpt:

Not all licensing requirements are equally burdensome. As detailed in this year’s Archbridge report, some states require nominal training and fees while other states put applicants through the ringer. Certification and registration requirements can be intrusive without being as burdensome as licensing. Rules sometimes tie jobs together in ways every bit as restrictive as explicit licensing requirements.

“In the state of Alabama, all acupuncturists are required to be licensed physicians; thus while the occupational title of ‘acupuncturist’ is not licensed, that occupation is barred by a license in some way,” Archbridge notes. “In several states, shampooers must obtain cosmetology licenses to work.”

On the other hand, there’s a growing trend for states to recognize licenses issued elsewhere. That doesn’t eliminate work barriers but makes them less damaging to job mobility. Archbridge’s report—prepared this year by Noah Trudeau, assistant professor of economics at Troy University and Labor Policy Fellow at Archbridge; Edward Timmons, Vice President of Policy at Archbridge; and Benjamin Seevers of West Virginia University—breaks down the details of state barriers to work.

According to Archbridge’s report, the five most burdensome states in the union are Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, and New Jersey. The five states that put the fewest bureaucratic hurdles in the way of work are Missouri, Kansas, New York, Indiana, and Colorado.

As the report points out, medical doctors are licensed in every state. Nail technicians, for unclear reasons, also need licenses in every state. Most regulated jobs, like the electricians and nutritionists mentioned above, are licensed in some states but not others. Master gas fitters face barriers of some kind in 44 states, including licensing requirements in 11. Dental radiographers face similar burdens in 33 states. Security guards are licensed in half of states, as are fuel piping contractors. Medical assistants and animal breeders are licensed in 10 states. Mold remediation workers need licenses only in Texas.

In other words, while some heavily regulated jobs arguably pose safety concerns, others that might raise similar issues are intermittently licensed. That offers an opportunity to assess whether licensing offers benefits.

Read the full article at Reason.

Read the State Occupational Licensing Index report here.