Missouri is the least-licensed state
Do you want to be an athletic trainer, a carpet installer or a food service manager? Each of those occupations requires a license in certain states, but not in Missouri. In fact, according to a new study by the conservative Reason Foundation, Missouri has fewer occupational licensing requirements than any state in the union.
The foundation counts just 41 licensed occupations in Missouri, compared with 177 in league-leading California. Professions like accountants, real-estate appraisers and architects are licensed in every state, but only Nevada requires a license for telemarketers, and court clerks are licensed only in Kentucky.
Illinois falls in the middle, with 93 licensed occupations. Among the folks who have to get a license in Illinois, but not in Missouri, are vending-machine servicers, gambling dealers and geologists.
Nationally, author Adam B. Summers says, about 20 percent of workers need a license to do their jobs, up from 4.5 percent in the 1950s. He asserts that many of the regulations are arbitrary:
While occupational licensing laws are billed as a means of protecting the public from negligent, unqualified or otherwise substandard practitioners, in reality they are simply a means of utilizing government regulation to serve narrow economic interests. Such special-interest legislation is designed not to protect consumers, but rather to protect existing business interests from competition.
Numerous studies have revealed little, if any, improvement in service quality from compulsory licensing. Oftentimes, licensing laws actually reduce service quality and public safety.
Does anyone have thoughts about which occupations require licensing but shouldn’t? Or about jobs that should be licensed but aren’t?
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David Nicklaus has covered St. Louis business for more than 25 years. His column appears three days a week on the Post-Dispatch business page. 
Once a special interest group requires a state licensure, the enabling legislation should include an overseen internship, apprenticeship, or other means to get into that field. I am qualified by education for one profession. However, the requirements to obtain licensure in that field requires 3 years employment in the field before one can take the licensure test. This field does not have such a stepped program into it, similar to the skilled trades– you get the advanced education (BS/MS), then you are on your own to find the jobs without the licensure, by begging someone to hire you, or leaving the state to go to places without such requirements to get your experience. I’m all for having OJT included in the steps between school and hanging out a shingle as a small business, but it is likely I will never work in the field of my education, because I cannot leave husband and caregiving responsibilities to go live somewhere else for 3 years. I suspect this causes many talented people to leave the state, never to return.