The cannabis industry in the United States is growing faster in the last few years than during the whole fight against prohibition (1920-1933). 2019 was an interesting year for cannabis industries. The last year of the second decade of the 21st century was experienced by many cannabis entrepreneurs as a challenging year due the first growing pains including the reality of a slow-growing Canadian market, shrinking investment capital, a national vaping health crisis and layoffs at some of the industry’s leading brands who were previously predicted for growth. Those setbacks were also offset by a tremendous growth in new markets like Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Florida.
The legal cannabis industry has created over 33,700 jobs in the past 12 months nationwide, making legal marijuana the fastest-growing industry in America. The Leafly 2020 Cannabis Jobs Report does not include jobs created by CBD’s recent change in legal status since the 2018 Farm Bill was passed. Because CBD isn’t regulated like state-licensed cannabis, there is no data yet available on which to build a jobs count, however, many cannabis industry professionals would argue that these figures would exceptionally increase and more than double if we included all the jobs that go undocumented, like CBD or unregistered businesses.
The NAICS(North American Industry Classification System) recently made a code for cannabis jobs. NAICS codes are how labor economists track how many jobs there are in a given field. However, Cannabis industry job codes still need some modification. Retail marijuana stores are lumped in with art supply stores, auction houses, and hot tub stores. Cannabis growers have the same job code as hay farmers and agave growers. But cannabis is recognized as a legal, growing job market and will continue to grow, month by month.
-Written By The Happy Therapist via The Cannabis Health Program At COIT
