Perhaps you are right, I do not know.
Just how does that work?
A regulation requiring a “license” to practice a profession automatically limits or controls the supply and thereby impacts the cost of supply.
Social workers are licensed, so clearly that isnt limiting the potential supply
Not necessarily. Most teachers, for instance, need a professional license as do many in social services, architects, lawyers,… Has that requirement limited their numbers? I’m not sure.
Low pay apparently has and there are many districts that struggle to fill empty teaching positions…Yet pay does not seem to be rising enough to attract more candidates. So that too would seem to indicate a mismatch between supply and demand and salary. I am not sure if licensing plays a role. It might indeed limit the supply as some people, who may be interested in teaching but who have already passed their college years and beyond, may be less inclined to go for a credential. I am not sure about that, either, but could see that as a possibility.
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Many school districts have waived their licensing requirements for teachers to address the shortage. Wages will eventually adjust.
Social workers do what they do for the good of society. What is limiting the supply is the other side of the equation that controls the resources to pay them. The demand clearly is there BUT, someone has limited the pool of resources available to that system.
This effect of licensing varies by profession. One of the most extreme effects of this type was taxi driving licenses or medallions needed to accept riders hailing cabs on the street. These medallions were tradeable and rentable and commanded very high prices in some places, until phone app based ride hailing appeared as competition.
However, this is not typical.
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That “someone” is called the public, or at least the voters. If candidates want to run on a " hire more social workers platform", they can do so. If elected officials faced public pressure for more social work, they would rearrange budgets accordingly. There is not some master wizard setting county budgets.
Teaching is always hard to figure out because there are many moving parts. Many districts may be having trouble filling spots primarily because of location and cost of living. And teachers pay (public) is throttled by local funding. Add in the unions and I’m not surprised. Just wondering, is there a shortage in private schools?
One of the problems with teachers pay is that it’s all or nothing. In general, I believe that some teachers do deserve a pay increase. Which ones? The high performers, the ones that students flock to because they’re great. But for the most part teacher pay, thanks to the unions, doesn’t work that way. Seniority trumps quality.
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Social workers are most in need by those struggling in society which tends to be the minority. How are they going to have a voice in influencing elected officials? So those with the means drive economic policy and skew the system to their needs. It comes down to the values of “your” society. Those who don’t need social workers will never place a value on their work compared to the value placed on them by those who really need them.
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Also, they tend to have less political and economic influence than others on an individual basis. Their influence exists mainly in terms of indirect effects that others notice (addiction, homelessness, child neglect, etc.), but the reaction by others is often not optimal (e.g. let the problems fester until the police get called and have to deal with them).
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from bls.gov on Social Workers
I got my CS degree in 1983 and since then have continuously heard that CS jobs are going away. They may ebb and flow, but they aren’t going away. The emphasis on what is taught will change, directed more towards various specialty tracks rather than theoretical CS, and towards AI and Data Science.
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Public universities do, but not privates.