Everything cannabis business owners need to know about the Leafly 2022 Cannabis Industry Jobs Report.
The Leafly 2022 Cannabis Industry Jobs Report was recently released and business is booming. With over 428,000 jobs, the cannabis industry is one of the largest job creators in the United States. This is the sixth annual cannabis industry jobs report Leafly has published since starting the report in 2017. It is the most extensive cannabis employment study in the country.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics is prohibited from including legal marijuana jobs in their yearly analysis due to marijuana’s federal prohibition. Leafly’s job report fills this gap in data and analysis. Since 2019, Leafly has partnered with Whitney Economics to produce the annual report. Whitney Economics is a global leader in economic research, data, and consulting.
The results of the jobs report are important for business owners in the cannabis industry to understand. It gives us concrete data that directly impacts several areas of our business. It identifies cannabis industry trends in job growth, sales, and economic impact at both the state and federal levels. The report includes direct jobs in cannabis like cultivation, product manufacturing, and retail sales. It also takes into account indirect cannabis industry jobs. These include jobs like accounting, human resources, legal affairs, as well as media, technology, and industry associations.
Leafly CEO Yoko Miyashita said in a press release, “Since 2014, when the nation’s first adult-use cannabis stores opened, the industry has created hundreds of thousands of new American jobs – and there are still plenty more yet to be created. We know the potential cannabis has as both an economic driver and force for good, and it’s heartening to see employment numbers continue to reflect this strong growth”.
The State of Michigan’s Cannabis Job Market
Michigan is the third-largest cannabis job market in the United States, trailing shortly behind Colorado and California. This means the cannabis job market in Michigan is one of the most rapidly growing markets in the country. As of January 2022, there were a total of 31,152 full-time equivalent jobs supported by legal cannabis in Michigan. In 2021, there were 13,074 new cannabis jobs created. This amounts to a 72% annual growth in cannabis jobs for the Great Lake State, and the growth is expected to continue.
According to estimates in the report from Whitney Economics, Michigan’s full cannabis demand is around $3.2 billion. 2021 cannabis sales in Michigan were a total of $1.79 billion. This means that the legal market is only serving a little over half of the potential demand in a state with 10 million residents. It also indicates that the cannabis sales potential in Michigan still has a great amount of room for growth in the coming years.
Some other important Michigan cannabis industry trends are that the state saw an 81% growth in cannabis sales during 2021. That outpaces the cannabis sales growth nationwide, which was only 33%. Since there is no cap on the number of retail licenses, the regulatory system in Michigan is making significant progress in supplying the state’s entire cannabis demand through the legal market.
2022 Cannabis Industry Jobs Report Highlights
There are so many valuable data points to review. Here are some of Leafly’s key highlights from this year’s job report.
- There are now 428,059 full-time equivalent jobs supported by the legal cannabis industry in the U.S.
- America’s 11 operating adult-use markets and 27 medical states combined sold just under $25 billion worth of cannabis products – more than $6 billion more from the previous year.
- 2021 marked the first year that cannabis job creation hit six figures. After adding 32,700 jobs in 2019 and 77,300 jobs in 2020, the industry added 107,059 new jobs in 2021.
- The United States now has three times as many cannabis workers as dentists.
- There are more people employed in the cannabis industry than there are hairstylists, barbers, and cosmetologists—combined.
- In 2022, three out of four Americans live in a state where cannabis is medically legal.
- The total cannabis sales figure found in this year’s report—$25 billion—represents only about 25% of the total potential US cannabis market.
- By 2025, America’s total annual legal cannabis revenue is forecast to be closer to $45 billion, which is still less than half the total potential market.
- Last year, America’s legal cannabis industry created more than 280 new jobs every day. In 2021, someone was hired for a cannabis-supported job every 2 minutes of the workday.
- The report forecasts that the total employment potential in a mature US legal cannabis market will be approximately 1.5 to 1.75 million workers
What All This Means For Cannabis Business Owners
The easiest way to sum up what all of this means for cannabis business owners is continued growth for your business. That’s something you want to hear as a business owner in any industry, but the cannabis industry is expected to see continued growth and expansion in both jobs and sales. This is partially due to new states legalizing marijuana. This creates first-time cannabis industry jobs in states where the legal marijuana business is still new. States like Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey are all expected to open adult-use cannabis sales within the next 18 months, which will create even more cannabis jobs in the United States. The cannabis job boom is expected to continue through at least 2025, so there is no sign of slowing down.
This is great for cannabis employees and cannabis employers. For cannabis employers, it means expansion and growth. This job boom has made finding top-tier talent in the cannabis industry more difficult, which is something hiring managers need to keep in mind when looking to fill job openings.
Creating more cannabis jobs also means creating more payroll and administrative tasks for your business. This is where we can help. We offer small business and corporate CPA services for the cannabis industry, including payroll management. We can handle all of your payroll needs, so you can spend your time running the other aspects of your business. We also have a variety of cannabis industry tax solutions, which can amount to significant tax savings. Contact us today for a free consultation, and get started right away on taking your cannabis business to the next level.
