Job growth in marijuana industry is skyrocketing

Don’t miss our MJBiz LinkedIn Live covering “Women Leaders in Cannabis: Shattering the Grass Ceiling” on Wednesday, March 27, at 2 p.m. ET. Visit LinkedIn to register!


The total number of job postings for the U.S. cannabis industry increased by 445% in 2017, a study by job search website ZipRecruiter shows.

The online job platform noted the spike is dramatically higher than the 18% increase in cannabis-related job postings in 2016, according to Business Insider.

ZipRecruiter’s chief economist, Cathy Barrera, said the pace of job growth in the marijuana industry increased throughout 2017 as businesses in California, Nevada, Massachusetts and other states prepared for the rollout of new recreational and medical marijuana programs.

According to ZipRecruiter data, cannabis jobs are mostly clustered in industry hubs like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Denver and some places in Florida, which legalized medical marijuana in 2016.

Cannabis industry job growth is stronger than job growth in some of the fastest-growing fields in the US, including tech and healthcare, Business Insider reported.

For example, health industry job postings rose 70% in 2017 while tech job openings rose by 254%, ZipRecruiter data shows.

According to the Marijuana Business Factbook 2017, the U.S. cannabis industry employs 165,000-230,000 full- and part-time workers.

In fact, businesses in the cannabis sector “employ more people than there are dental hygienists and bakers in the United States and will soon surpass the number of telemarketers and pharmacists,” Marijuana Business Daily wrote in June.