A revamped Occupational Licensing Dashboard shows the prevalence of licensure across occupations, states and time—along with worker and occupation characteristics. The expanded Occupational Licensing Dashboard, an interactive tool from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis now shows the details of licensure policy, including where and when specific occupations were licensed. The authors explain that “information about licensure is useful not just for researchers but for practitioners, policymakers, and the public. Information about licensure policy is especially valuable because it can help groups such as state legislators understand the broader regulatory environment as they assess the need for new or existing licensure in a particular occupation.” An interactive map in the Occupational Licensing Dashboard allows users to select a specific occupation and then view states that require licensure for that occupation. For pharmacists, for example, the map displays that each state requires a license to practice. For florists, however, the map displays just one state that requires licensure – Louisiana. The data also reveals other information, such as the date the state implemented the licensing law. The data delineates the type of the regulation, as well, whether licensure, certification or registration.
Using the latest data from the federal government’s Office of Child Care, SmartAsset ranked each state based on the federal dollars spent on subsidies to child care centers for each resident younger that five. According to the latest information, the amount spent on child care subsidies in 2022 amounted to just over $29 billion. The rankings reveal how each state compares. New Mexico ranks first with the highest federal child care subsidies at $1,782 per child. West Virgina came in second highest with child care subsidies per capita at $1,651. And those states with the lowest federal child care subsidies include South Dakota, Virginia and Minnesota. Key findings also included stats on the price of child care with Massachusetts and Minnesota among the most expensive for child care.
In an interview with the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), Arizona state CIO J.R. Sloan shared his priorities for Arizona. On the January 21 NASCIO Voices podcast, Sloan spoke about his focus on using artificial intelligence in the state, with current work on AI governance, policy and use case development; he said he hopes to leverage those efforts to enable “agencies to benefit from the pockets of work that have been done so they can see the use cases and the value propositions.” He views the key focus now as encouraging the adoption and value-based implementation of AI going forward to benefit the work of the agencies. Sloan also spoke of other priorities, including digital services and experience and referenced standing up common public-facing portals, with identity attached to that. “Identity is kind of front of mind for me,” he explained. “I see its core foundational need in terms of digital services and digital experience in the whole fraud, waste and abuse area.” He also spoke of the state’s priority to modernize – to “refresh, replace and update systems.”
Renee Moseley joined GL Solutions in 2016 with an educational and professional background in research and writing, along with software documentation. At GL Solutions she produces informative content to help regulatory agencies stay current on news and information that supports their success.