Trends in job market for US cannabis business

The number of jobs in the US cannabis industry is already 200 to 300 thousand. Over the past two years, the percentage growth in employment in this sector of the country's economy was about 75%.

Interest in jobs in the field of modern American hemp breeding is increasing annually and is currently the mainstream for companies engaged in recruiting workforce in the US market. In particular, analysts of the job vacancies market emphasize that over the past few years there has been a rapid growth in the list of vacancies associated with the continuing development of the cannabis industry in almost all administrative-territorial units of the United States.

In particular, ZipRecruiter employee Julia Pollak (Julia Pollak) argues that the number of jobs in the field of US cannabis breeding is from 200 to 300 thousand people. Similar data are provided by Bruce Barcott of Leafly and Beau Whitney Economics, who published a report stating that the industry directly employs 211,000 people. He considered that over the past two years, the percentage growth in employment in this sector of the country's economy was about 75%.

“In the course of the calculations, it should be borne in mind that indirect and auxiliary jobs (lawyers, accountants, security consultants, media experts, representatives of marketing firms) serving the hemp industry, along with the jobs created, make up a large share of all occupations in the industry. The total number of full-time jobs that depend on the rhythmic work of the cannabis industry in the country thus increases to 296,000, ”says a report prepared by Mr. Barcott.

Lists of professions in the hemp business is also rapidly increasing. For example, the platform for hiring workers in the legal psychoactive cannabis industry Vangst says that in 2018, the number of vacancies increased by 690 percent over the same period last year. Employees expect a 220 percent increase in the number of vacancies already this year.

For clarity, you can specify a number of cases in which top managers left their positions in other industries in order to find their niche in the rapidly growing hemp industry. In particular, the executive director of Morgan Stanley has moved into the hemp business; former vice president of global brand strategy for Twitter, has taken the position of marketing director for NorCal hemp; Amazon's former chief executive Tim Leslie was appointed CEO of Leafly, and Kelsey Barnes, who left a senior position in IBM’s cybersecurity division, took a job at Vinzan International.

However, it is not only top management looking for work in the US hemp industry. Vacancies range from C-Suite to advertising representatives or couriers. Another trend of recruitment agencies has become the possibility of providing an opportunity to train in cannabis companies interested in this.

The highlight of the industry is that the average wage in this sector of business has increased by 16% over the year alone. Unskilled work in modern American hemp breeding is not only prestigious and mostly beneficial for the body, but above all, it is paid on the market higher than in traditional sectors of the country's economy. Surveys conducted in April 2019 confirm that the salaries for entry-level positions are usually higher than the average for other sectors of the economy.

For example, employees working in a clinic or a store where medical cannabis is sold earn more than bartenders, retailers in retail stores and pharmacy workers. Unqualified professionals dealing with the cultivation of cannabis, earn more than ordinary agricultural workers or employees of greenhouses; hemp producers who deal with hemp food products earn higher wages than bakers or culinary equipment operators. In particular, Cura Cannabis Solutions for unskilled workers above the hourly minimum wage pays $ 14 for workload similar to the one they would have done in any other company not related to the hemp industry in the United States.