- Christopher Smith, Publisher
More Jobs in Cannabis Than Police
Remember when Steve Martin starred in the movie “The Jerk”? and the phone book arrived? and he ran around telling anyone who would listen that he was “somebody”?
So the Leafly Jobs Report for 2021 is out, and on behalf of the entire industry, I’d like to say, “We’re Somebody! We’re really Somebody!”
“The 2022 Leafly Jobs Report found 428,059 full-time equivalent jobs supported by legal cannabis as of January 2022.
“The industry added 107,059 new jobs in 2021
The finance industry, which employs 9 Million workers, only added 145,000
“That’s a 33% increase in jobs in a single year. And it marks the FIFTH year in a row of annual jobs growth greater than 27%.
An average of 280 new cannabis jobs per day.”
And I know that many of our Dear Readers are responsible for these new jobs, so bravo to you!
RELATIVE TO OTHER PROFESSIONS
A few more statistics from the report that might make it more pertinent:
There are now 3x as many cannabis employees as Dentists in the US
In addition, Cannabis workers now outnumber:
Firefighters
Hairstylists, barbers and cosmetologists (combined)
Machinists
Insurance agents
Bank Tellers
CALIFORNIA: MORE CANNABI THAN POLICE
Not surprisingly, CALIFORNIA is the largest cannabis job market with > 83,000, and what’s amusing about that number is more than all the actors, directors and producers combined, and also, more than law enforcement patrol officers.
LEGAL MARKET IS ONLY 25% OF ALL SALES
Whitney Economics, which did the study, calculates that the 2021 sales figures of just under $25 BILLION, represents about 25% of the total potential US cannabis market. In other words, it estimates 75% of the market is still on the illicit side.
"Over the coming year, we expect the US legal cannabis market to grow at a rate of 18%, to $29.2 billion," says the Leafly Report.
GROWTH EXPECTED FOR YEARS TO COME
The Leafly Report explains that the jobs boom is expected to continue through at least 2025, considering NM, NJ, NY, CT are all going adult-use in the next 18 months. The mature market jobs number is estimated between 1.5 and 1.75 Million workers, so at least 3x what it is today.