Looking through the list of occupations licensed by NY State[1], most of jobs that have license requirements seem to be reasonable. For example, asbestos handlers, bus drivers, crane operators, hazardous materials transporters, milk testers and waste water treatment plant operators (just to choose a few at random) all have jobs that could have significant impacts on public safety, and would need to be certified to have completed safety training (which may need to be periodically updated).<p>Another class of jobs, such as insurance agents, insurance adjusters, real estate brokers, real estate appraisers and security guards would need to have a knowledge of the laws and regulations that govern those kinds of work (e.g., it would be a huge legal risk to hire security guards who didn't know under what circumstances they could legally detain someone, what degree of force could be legally used, etc.).<p>None of the occupations in that list jumped out at me as being something that the state had no business regulating.<p>[1] <a href="https://labor.ny.gov/stats/lstrain.shtm" rel="nofollow">https://labor.ny.gov/stats/lstrain.shtm</a>