Anyone looking for a new career in one of the fastest growing industries in the country should consider seeking employment in the cannabis industry. The industry has countless jobs being created with eight legal-marijuana states and more than half of the states in the U.S allowing for medical cannabis use. New Frontier, a cannabis analytics and research firm, is projected to be worth an estimated $24 billion by 2025. Meanwhile, the medical marijuana market alone is estimated to reach $13.2 billion by that time.
Although determining the number of jobs created by legalization can be very difficult, the Marijuana Policy Group (MPG) reported that Colorado’s cannabis industry showed that legalization created 18,000 new jobs. 35 percent of the jobs created were through retail, while 22 percent came from administrative and 12 percent from agricultural.
New Frontier utilized MPG’s model of growth in Colorado to show that recreational and medical cannabis will be able to create an estimated 280,000 jobs nationwide by 2020. Furthermore, if more states enact medical or adult-use cannabis legalization, the numbers will be significantly higher.
While other industries are declining, the cannabis industry is taking off. Employee’s in other fields are increasingly seeking marijuana-related jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that employment in agriculture, manufacturing, and utilities are all down. As a result, many workers are transferring over to the cannabis industry. Workers with agricultural skills who can grow cannabis are highly valued.
Data from Leafly.com shows that 123,000 full-time positions have been created in the U.S. California accounts for 43,374 of those full-time jobs. Although the President Trump’s attitude towards marijuana differs from that of the public, the future looks very bright for the cannabis industry. 2016 saw four new adult-use states and six newly approved medical programs being adopted. The states that already enacted recreational sales have seen a flood of tax revenue that has gone to underfunded infrastructure and educational programs.
Potential job seekers should check out the employment scene in states that are expanding their medical programs. Job seekers should also take into account recent data from New Frontier, which shows the most growth in delivery services and demand for flowers and edibles. David Bernstein, CEO of WeedHire.com, weighed in on the current cannabis job market.
“What we’ve seen with jobs in the cannabis industry is an evolution—you could even say maturity. Businesses that were start-ups two years ago and faced with so many obstacles have begun to staff as developed businesses, and this seems to mirror the industry growth as a whole. We are definitely seeing more jobs tied to management, operations and regulatory compliance. Now more than ever, there are opportunities for experienced management personnel from other industries to work in cannabis. Because these experienced businesses can now rely on consistent revenue, it means qualified individuals can even make an income comparable to what they previously made in other industries.”
Although there are still many jobs tied to sales and manufacturing, states like Colorado and Washington are also seeing a spike in hiring for accounting and legal.
Scott Giannotti, managing director of the Cannabis World Congress and Business Exposition, explains the growing field of cannabis and how to get involved. “The hemp industry is exploding, and by 2020 analysts are projecting a surge of $2 billion to $3 billion a year from the $600 million market in 2017. The fast-growing segment of the market—CBD hemp oil, currently estimated at $125 million to $150 million per year—is expected to triple in size, swelling to a robust $450 million to $500 million by 2020.
Job seekers can expect to find work in the hemp market in the following areas: extracting for CBD hemp oil, business development (sales), marketing and farming. What makes hemp farming different from cannabis farming is that growing hemp is truly agriculture, using farming technology and methods, whereas growing marijuana is akin to horticulture. For people looking to get their foot in the door, a great thing would be to find out who is growing hemp in your state and ask to volunteer on the farm with planting and harvesting.
Another possibility is becoming a sales rep for a CBD company: Find out if anyone in your state is manufacturing CBD hemp-oil products and look for a job in packing, shipping or sales. Because hemp is still just a $600-million-a-year industry, jobs are hard to find—but they are coming, so the best thing to do right now is to get educated on the hemp industry and find out which segments interest you most.”
Chloe Villano is CEO of Clover Leaf University, Colorado’s first state-accredited cannabis training school. Villano states that there is something for everyone to learn at Clover Leaf, “There’s no doubt that marijuana is the fastest-growing industry in America today. To date, 26 states have legalized medical marijuana for qualified patients, and eight states and the District of Columbia have laws legalizing marijuana for recreational use, including California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada, which passed measures legalizing marijuana in the November 2016 elections. Our curriculum integrates all industry positions, from budtenders to cultivators. CLU has launched various research-and-development projects concerning cannabis, and we strive to raise awareness about its potential to benefit society through patient and consumer education, and by creating a knowledgeable industry and workforce.
We are helping the various stakeholders create a standard of excellence for the cannabis industry. At CLU, we give you the resources to succeed. The best advice we can give you is to get educated and get a job now! The marijuana industry is projected to create more jobs than manufacturing by 2020. In the first year of legalization, over 10,000 jobs were created virtually overnight in the state of Colorado. Currently, there are over 30,000 employees in the industry in Colorado alone, and that isn’t even close to what we’ll see in larger markets such as California in the near future.”
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