A growing consensus of economists and policy makers believes that one of the big problems in the U.S. labor market is the growth of occupational licensing.
Now the Labor Department has started a new effort to track occupational certificates and licenses and their effects.
In many states you can’t so much as get a haircut or have a manicure unless the person performing the service has an occupational license. Last summer, the White Housereleased a report targeting this tangled maze of job-licensing requirements, and saying that trimming the thicket would improve the economy.
While the focus thus far has been on the harm of too much licensing, the new data underscores that somebody really benefits from the licenses: the people who hold them.
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