In 2015, a review by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics found “only eight instances of the de-licensing of occupations over the past 40 years.”
Since 2016, I reported in May, there had been six new instances of states de-licensing occupations. Now it’s seven.
The ice-jam on occupational licensing continues to break with Connecticut’s reforms:
… Connecticut lawmakers enacted Senate Bill 191 to “repeal and streamline certain occupational licenses, registrations and certificates in order to remove barriers for employment while still maintaining health and safety protections for consumers.”
The new law repeals several occupational licenses in the state that do not have educational or training requirements. Those include licenses for swimming pool builders, swimming pool maintenance and repair, shorthand reporters, and itinerant venders, along with registration for athlete agents and liquor wholesaler’s salesman certificates. The state Office of Fiscal Analysis predicts the eliminated licensing requirements will save affected professionals more than $180,000 in the next fiscal year, while also generating a small amount of revenue for the state budget.
Will North Carolina join these other states, or must we wait for (more) antitrust action?
