Over the last few decades, the job market in the U.S. has changed in many ways. But one trend that hasn’t received nearly enough attention is the steady rise of occupational licensing: more and more jobs are requiring workers to be licensed to enter the profession.
More and More Jobs Today Require a License. That’s Good for Some Workers, but Not Always for Consumers.
More and more jobs are requiring workers to be licensed to enter the profession. In the 1950s, approximately 5% of US workers had an occupational license. Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 23% of full-time workers have a license. Proponents of occupational licensing claim that licensing enhances the quality of services delivered to the public. Critics say that professional associations lobby for occupational licensing simply to restrict competition and increase earnings — and that licensing harms consumers by restricting access to professional services. A new research paper focuses on one specific job — opticians — to estimate the effect that state licensing has on earnings and service quality. Researchers found evidence that in the year after a state passes legislation mandating that opticians be licensed, optician earnings increase 12% on average. They found no evidence that licensing laws increased quality, suggesting that increases in optician earnings due to licensing were driven by restrictions in competition.