Keeping the competition out is the impact, if not the goal, of at least some occupational licensing programs. A new report from the Institute for Justice outlines North Carolina’s licensing rules. Carolina Journal’s Sara Burrows details the report:
A number of occupations have higher-than-average barriers to entry in North Carolina, the report said. For example:
• North Carolina requires almost two years of education to become a barber compared with the national average of slightly more than a year.
• It takes three years to become a landscape contractor or a fire/security alarm installer, compared to national averages of one-and-a-half years or less.
• Aspiring pest control applicators must spend two years in an apprenticeship, despite 32 states requiring no experience at all.
Often the education requirements North Carolina and other states impose don’t seem consistent with the demands of the job.
While it takes only 39 days of training to earn a license as an emergency medical technician in the state, it takes substantially more to become a licensed manicurist (70 days), massage therapist (117 days), skin care specialist (140 days), cosmetologist (350 days), or barber (722 days).
