License certifications

Some may also have certifications. But what are licenses and certifications? How do they differ? Will you need them for your career? For example, a dietitian in Florida needs a state-issued license, but one in New Jersey does not. This article explains what these credentials are and uses data from the U. Bureau of Labor Statistics BLS to show the occupations in which workers are most likely to have a license or certification.

It also highlights BLS growth projections for selected occupations. Licenses and certifications show that a person has the specific knowledge or skill needed to do a job. Earning a license or certification involves meeting standards, which often includes passing an exam. Licenses and certifications are usually valid for a limited term and must be renewed periodically.

An employer may require either credential. However, there are a few key differences in the way BLS uses these terms. As shown below, one of the biggest distinctions between these two credentials is that licenses are legally required by the government to work in an occupation; certifications are not.

Sometimes, these credentialing terms are used interchangeably. For example, states may refer to the credentials teachers need as certifications. However, BLS would define them as licenses because they are issued by a state government and are legally required for many teaching jobs. As chart 1 shows, workers with advanced degrees were most likely to be licensed or certified. Note: A person may have more than one certification or license.

Footnotes: 1 Persons with a license may also have a certification. Source: U. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Licenses and certifications are more common in some occupation groups than in others. Whether you need an occupational license or certification might depend on your state, employer, or the type of work you hope to do.

Occupations with the highest percentages of licensed workers include those in healthcare, legal and protective service, community and social services, and personal care and service.

See chart 2. Nearly three-quarters of the 8. These occupations include physicians , pharmacists , and dental hygienists. And almost half of the 3. All states require workers to be licensed in some of these occupations; nearly all states require licensing for workers in other occupations.

BLS projects relatively fast job growth for many healthcare occupations, including those that usually require a license. For example, occupational therapy assistants , physical therapist assistants , and nurse practitioners are projected to be among the fastest growing occupations.

In healthcare support occupations, these workers were mostly nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides and medical assistants. Within protective service occupations, they tended to be employed as police officers, security guards, or firefighters.

Personal care and service occupations include hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetologists, as well as barbers. Professional certifications and licenses were relatively uncommon in food preparation and serving related occupations and in building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations. Finally, within professional and related occupations, those employed in computer and mathematical occupations and in arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations held certifications and licenses at a lower rate, regardless of their level of educational attainment.

In , only Among all workers in professional and related occupations, Among those with a credential, the percentages of workers with a required certification or license were at least 50 percent for all intermediate occupation groups. However, there was substantial variation across the groups. Generally, credentialed workers in occupational groups with the highest prevalence of certification and licensing were more likely to say their credential was required.

For example, among workers with a certification or license, However, among credentialed workers in arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations, as well as in office and administrative support occupations, less than 60 percent said their certification or license was required for their job. The share of workers who held a required credential also varied by detailed occupation. In general, virtually all workers in occupations with the highest prevalence of licensing said the credential was required for their job.

For example, among lawyers; physicians and surgeons; and elementary, middle and secondary school teachers, at least 97 percent of credentialed workers said their license was required for their job in However, among credentialed workers in occupations in which certifications and licenses were less prevalent, a majority still needed the credential.

For example, among paralegals and legal assistants 24 percent of whom held a certification or license in , about 69 percent of those with a certification or license said the credential was required for their job. Thus, even in occupations in which certifications and licenses were not as prevalent, these credentials were often a necessary condition for employment.

The results may have been driven, in part, by differences in occupational licensing regulation by state. Within detailed occupations in which the shares of people holding a certification but no license were the highest, the credential was less likely to be a requirement. Among computer network architects, information security analysts, computer and information systems managers, and software developers, the share of workers with a certification or license who said their credential was required for their job was closer to 50 percent than percent.

For workers in these occupations, the credential may have served primarily as a resume boost. However, among other occupations with a relatively high prevalence of certifications, this was not the case.

In , about 84 percent of the clergy and 86 percent of automotive service technicians and mechanics with a certification or license said the credential was required for their job. In , median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary workers with a currently active professional certification or license were 35 percent higher than earnings for those without one of these credentials.

However, the relationship between earnings and certification and licensing status was more complex than this percent difference might suggest.

As discussed in previous sections, older and more highly educated workers were more likely to hold a certification or license. In addition, the percent difference in earnings between those with and without a certification or license increased with age and decreased with educational attainment.

Both the incidence of certification and licensing and the percent difference in earnings varied substantially across occupations. Finally, workers with a certification or license who said their credential was required for their job received higher earnings, on average, than those with a credential that was not required.

The following sections discuss how earnings and certification and licensing status interact with age, sex, race, ethnicity, educational attainment, occupation, and requirement for job. It is important to note that these comparisons of earnings by certification and licensing status and demographic characteristics are on a broad level and do not control for these factors simultaneously. This difference was likely driven, in part, by the concentration of professional certifications in computer and mathematical occupations, in which workers tend to have relatively high earnings.

Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, 16 years and over 2. In , weekly earnings for those with a certification or license were substantially higher than earnings for those without one of these credentials for all major age groups. However, the percent difference in earnings between those with and without a credential increased with age. In , for every age group, earnings for men were higher than earnings for women, independent of certification or licensing status.

Both male and female full-time wage and salary workers ages 16 to 24 with a certification or license had about 20 percent higher earnings than those without a credential. Among the employed ages 25 to 54, both men and women had about one-third higher earnings than their counterparts without a certification or license.

However, earnings for women workers age 55 and over with a certification or license were 45 percent higher than earnings for those without one of these credentials. For men age 55 and over, earnings for credentialed workers were 29 percent higher than earnings for those without a certification or license. The difference in earnings between those with and without a certification or license also varied by race and ethnicity.

The largest percent difference in earnings was among Hispanic full-time wage and salary workers. Among Whites 34 percent , Blacks 28 percent , and Asians 31 percent , the percent differences in earnings were similar.

In , percent differences in earnings between those 25 years and over with and without a certification or license generally declined with educational attainment. See figure 4. The percent difference in earnings was highest among workers with a professional degree. However, these results are subject to at least two important caveats. First, while the percent difference in earnings between those with and without a certification or license was highest for lower levels of educational attainment, very few workers with less formal education actually held one of these credentials.

In , of the Workers with less than a high school diploma make up about 7 percent of total employment. Second, because of the strong correlation between educational attainment and certification and licensing status, it is difficult to conclusively determine whether differences in earnings are driven by the traditional education or alternative certification or license form of credential.

A further confounding factor, as mentioned previously, is that certain levels of educational attainment are often criteria for obtaining a certification or license. For example, in most states, an aspiring lawyer cannot become a licensed attorney without completing law school.

As a result, it is difficult to determine how much of the difference in earnings between a licensed attorney and a paralegal or legal assistant can be attributed to the license.

Differences in earnings between those with and without a certification or license varied substantially by occupation in Table 9 presents median weekly earnings by certification and licensing status and occupational group, as well as the percent difference in earnings between credentialed and noncredentialed workers. On the other end of the distribution, for workers in computer and mathematical occupations and in arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations, the differences in earnings were not statistically significant.

Note: A person may have more than one certification or license. Statistical significance is at the percent confidence level. Differences in earnings between those with and without a certification or license at the intermediate occupational level may be the result of these differences in job roles and responsibilities, instead of the credential.

Looking at differences in earnings at the detailed occupational level partially addresses this shortcoming. The difference in earnings for those with and without a certification or license varied substantially within occupational groups. Table 10 presents earnings data for those with and without one of these credentials for select detailed occupations.

Not all occupations are presented, because many smaller occupations did not have a sufficient number of observations for reliable earnings estimates to be calculated. Estimates of full-time wage and salary workers for detailed occupations may not sum to totals because data are not presented for all occupations. Data are not presented for occupations for which the base is less than 50, These percent differences in earnings for individual jobs were much smaller than the percent difference in earnings for legal occupations in the aggregate.

Thus, the overall difference in earnings for legal occupations was partially driven by occupational and educational differences. Within legal occupations, more than 8 in 10 workers with a certification or license were lawyers—who tend to be more highly paid—while about half of noncredentialed workers were paralegals and legal assistants.

In addition, 87 percent of credentialed workers in legal occupations held an advanced degree, compared with 31 percent of noncredentialed workers. Within education, training, and library occupations, the percent difference in earnings between those with and without a certification or license was 41 percent for preschool and kindergarten teachers and 10 percent for elementary and middle school teachers.

Earnings differences were modestly positive for secondary school teachers 11 percent , special education teachers 18 percent , and other teachers and instructors 16 percent , which includes substitutes. Among postsecondary teachers and teacher assistants, by contrast, differences in median earnings for those with and without one of these credentials were not statistically significant.

However, it is important to note that among teachers, the difference in earnings may partly reflect whether the teacher is employed in a public or private school and whether the teacher is a member of a union or covered by a union contract. Research by Allegretto and Tojerow found that, when controlling for educational attainment and demographics, public school teachers were paid about 16 to 19 percent more, on average, than private school teachers during the period from to Because public school teachers are more likely to hold a certification or license than private school teachers, it is hard to determine to what degree each of these factors is influencing the difference in earnings between teachers with and without one of these credentials.

Among healthcare practitioners and technical occupations, some detailed occupations showed a substantial difference in earnings between full-time wage and salary workers with and without a credential. See table In general, the gap in earnings between workers with a required credential and a nonrequired credential was largest in occupations with a high prevalence of certification and licensing.

Workers without a required certification or license were disproportionately paralegals and legal assistants. A similar pattern was present among healthcare practitioners and technical occupations. Very few workers in this occupational group held a credential that was not required, but those who did were typically technicians or technologists.

On the other hand, practitioners, such as physicians, surgeons, dentists, and nurses, held credentials that were required for their job. These occupations have very different roles and responsibilities, which may be a factor in the earnings differences. In many occupations, holding an optional certification or license was not associated with a boost in earnings. This analysis of CPS data provides insight into the effect that professional certifications and licenses have in the U.

Over 43 million people, or People with a certification or license had lower unemployment rates and higher labor force participation rates. Among the employed, the prevalence of these credentials increased with age and educational attainment. Among the race and ethnicity groups, Whites held these credentials at the highest rate and Hispanics held them at the lowest rate. Licenses were the more common credential, held by Licensed workers were most frequently employed in legal occupations, or in jobs related to healthcare or education.

Professional certifications, by contrast, were held by only 2. In addition, a large majority of workers with a certification or license said the credential was required for their job.

Overall, earnings for workers with a credential were about one-third higher than earnings for those without one of these credentials. This percent difference in earnings increased with age, but decreased with educational attainment. In addition, workers who said their credential was required for their job had significantly higher earnings than those with an optional credential. Although these new data from the CPS provide a useful snapshot of the prevalence of certification and licensing among U.

Perhaps most importantly, because of the relatively small sample size in most states, the data are only available at the national level. Since many occupational licensing laws are passed at the state level, the applicability of CPS data to certain research questions about licensing may be limited.

In today's competitive job market, those extra skills and experiences can help bump your resume to the top of the heap. A certificate program does not lead to certification but can prepare you to earn certification.

Certificate programs prepare students for certain careers, but for some jobs, additional testing and credentialing may be required. In some cases, certificate programs serve as exam prep for professional certification. Simply put, a certificate is evidence of education, while certification is evidence of passing an exam or meeting industry standards.

Because certifications are often issued by national organizations, they are standardized. So for instance, while a healthcare employer may not be familiar with a candidate's specific phlebotomy training course, they will instantly recognize a phlebotomy technician certification.

Certifications rely on the credibility, authority, and standards of their awarding organizations. Some industry certifications are notoriously difficult to obtain, while others have relatively few requirements. Similarly, while some certifications are highly coveted in certain industries e. Certifications and licenses both come after certificates and degrees. It takes an education to prepare for certification exams. And it takes an education — plus those qualifying exams — to receive a professional license.

It takes an education — plus certifying exams — to earn a professional license. Licensure sanctions individuals to work in professions that can impact others' safety. Potentially dangerous jobs include architects, psychologists, electricians, manicurists who use strong chemicals , and even bartenders who are responsible for not overserving or serving to minors. Licenses are mostly issued by state governments, which means that licensing standards and procedures vary widely. Not all states require licenses for the same professions, but if a state requires one, you must get a license in order to legally work in that position.

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