A study shows that marijuana jobs are helping fuel a new economy
If you want to know how many jobs have been created due to the marijuana boom, don’t ask the federal government. The Bureau of Labor Statistics ignores the subject since cannabis is still illegal at the federal level, but there are other ways to find out. A recent independently led study by Whitney Economics and Leafly dug into the industry to find out how many new jobs have been created thanks to cannabis and the results should be seen in a favorable light.
According to the study, there are now 211,000 cannabis jobs in the U.S. Over 64,000 of these were included last year alone, and the findings show that legal cannabis is the largest job-creating machine to ever have existed in the country.
The cannabis workforce was around 21% in 2017. A year later, it had expanded by 44% and, this year, is expected to grow by an additional 20%. Over the three-year period, that represents growth of 110%.
In Florida, cannabis employment grew by 703% last year, with over 9,000 full-time jobs added. Nevada included over 7,500 new marijuana positions that year and New York saw its cannabis employment field grow 278% to more than 5,000 jobs. Pennsylvania brought 2017 to a close with just 90 jobs – a year later, there were 3,900.
Looking ahead, several states stand out as the best spots to seek marijuana employment. Among these are Arkansas, California, Florida, Massachusetts and Oklahoma, and they are all desperately looking for top talent.
