Does Job Licensing Keep People from Beginning Careers?

Last week, we wrote about unnecessary burdens placed on lower-income workers from job licences. It is great to see others are weighing in on the subject, too. A guest column in the Des Moines Register written by two researchers from the Center for Growth and Opportunity estimates 48,000 jobs and $290 million are lost because of barriers created by occupational licensing in Iowa.

In this video clip, we asked Laura Ebke, Senior Fellow for Job Licensing with the Platte Institute, how licensing creates hurdles for entry into some occupations because of increased time and expense.

While some oversight and licensing will always be necessary, the fact that Iowa licenses more workers per capita than any other state should be of great concern. While ITR does not suggest eliminating all occupational licensing, we do encourage the legislature to create a system to review all existing licenses to determine if licensure is still needed, and if so, if the requirements are still appropriate (and competitive with other states) for the occupation.

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