If you work in a licensed trade or know somebody who does, you understand the enormous expense and hassle occupational licensing represents, creating barriers to making a living and to moving across state lines where you might have to jump through hoops all over again. Of course, some people like those barriers since they limit the competition they face, but those folks are part of the problem. Reasonable people recognize licensing as a deterrent to prosperity and mobility and so encourage reform around the country. Now, a new report compares state licensing regimes so we can see who is making progress and who needs to try harder.
"Occupational licensing affects more than 20 percent of workers in the United States. The extent of occupational licensing greatly differs across states," write co-authors Edward Timmons and Noah Trudeau, both of the Knee Center for the Study of Occupational Regulation at West Virginia University, in the Washington, D.C.-based Archbridge Institute's 2023 State Occupational Licensing Index, published last week. "From both a research and public policy standpoint, it is important to have a comprehensive measure of occupational licensure across states and occupations."
