Back in 2019, Leafly partnered with a global leader in cannabis and hemp consulting, Whitney Economics. The most comprehensive cannabis employment study nationwide was created through strategic data collection and economic research.
The report gathered information on the direct and indirect jobs supported by the production and sales of cannabis. Jobs that directly support the legal cannabis sector are those related to cultivation, retail sales, processing, and packaging, aka the individuals that pave the way in marijuana’s seed-to-sale process.
The cultivation category consists of the growers, harvesters, and farmers of the plant. The processors are the extractors and curators of the plant’s targeted cannabinoids, whether CBD, THC, CBN, etc.
Other jobs focused directly on the industry are the testers providing the proper cannabis analysis under the regulated requirements by law for sale and distribution. They are followed by the packagers that keep the product fresh and retail compliant while bringing branding dreams to life, from air-tight glass jars to child-proof caps.
This study also collected a broad set of data encompassing the jobs indirectly supported by cannabis cultivation and licensed retail companies.
For example, some of those jobs include the technology platforms surrounding the cannabis sector, human resources, public relations, and regulatory compliance employment opportunities. The list of jobs also includes security, construction, and maintenance jobs necessary for many marijuana-related companies and or farms.
The comprehensive cannabis employment report also indicates that over 100,000 new jobs were created in 2021, 77,300 in 2020, and 32,700 in 2019.
The last five years of marijuana industry growth and legality provided important statistical values, such as the 429,059 people employed full-time in the cannabis sector.
The number of people employed in the cannabis industry looks to grow exponentially in the future, with a projected 1.75 million jobs relating to cannabis countrywide.
This new report also revealed some intriguing statistical comparisons and economic values. According to Marijuana Moment, “there are now three times as many people working in cannabis as there are dentists. There are also more marijuana jobs than there are people working as hairstylists, barbers and cosmetologists combined.”
It seems employers are starting to release old policies governed by the War on Drugs and embrace the future of cannabis.
Philadelphia entrepreneur Damien Jordan has recently created a new search engine site offering jobs that don’t test for weed. The search engine site provides career opportunities that no longer require drug screening for cannabis as an employment requirement.
Jordan’s site means further progression in employment growth within the cannabis sector and perhaps will help dissociate previous stigmas surrounding the criminalization component on cannabis.
It has been amazing to see the growth in employment opportunities supported by the marijuana market over its short legacy of legalization. The state market data trends give a prominent scope of quantified data pertinent to the economic health within the industry.
Both the industry’s newly legal states and pioneer states have shown market trends throughout legalization. The state-by-state market trends vary widely over the country, and it seems like the length at which each state has been open to cannabis cultivation is not a dependent factor.
For example, the state of Oregon, a true pioneer in the cannabis industry, supports 19,938 jobs, and its state consumers purchased about $1.18 billion in cannabis products in 2021. Yet this study’s data concludes that the marijuana industry in Illinois sold $1.78 billion in cannabis products in 2021 while supporting 28,992 legal jobs.
In contrast, this five-year study exposed a common trend indicating an incredibly high job rate increase of 27 percent per year. The data shows unveiling problematic situations such as retail licensing lawsuits that drain start-up companies’ capital investments and prevent further employment opportunities.
Job shortages and unfulfilled positions are obstacles that occur within the marijuana industry, and with states where cannabis markets are emerging, growing consumer demand will lead to more job openings.
The cannabis industry has sold a staggering $25 billion in products. It will only continue to flourish economically as states such as New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York push to implement retail sales.
It is important to look at the cannabis sales revenue increase and employment numbers within the cannabis sector, and the diversity of those supported by the marijuana market.
The Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA) recently released a national cannabis equity report and map explaining that the goal is to help advocates, stakeholders, lawmakers, and consumers understand minorities’ blockades when entering the cannabis sector and diverse cannabis market.
As researchers continue to collect data focused on the marijuana market, people can expect a nationwide change economically that is incomparable to the introduction of any other industry throughout time.
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