The cannabis industry now supports 440,445 “full-time equivalent jobs,” according to the 2024 Vangst Jobs Report published this week by the cannabis jobs platform Vangst in partnership with Whitney Economics.
The report also found that the industry added 22,952 new jobs in 2023, which was a 5.4% year-over-year increase from the previous year. The report also tracked the value of cannabis products sold in 2023 to total $28.8 billion, which was $2.7 billion — or a little over 9% — more than the previous year.
Revenues are expected to continue to rise in 2024 and 2025 with the report predicting another 9% rise in annual revenue this year, with particularly hot job markets expected to open up in Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland as those states’ industries continue to develop.
“When we started Vangst, there were less than 50,000 full-time employees in the cannabis industry. Less than a decade later, there are 440,445 full-time employees in cannabis, a number that will continue growing.” — Karson Humiston, Vangst Founder & CEO, in a press release
The industry’s overall job growth represents an important turnaround after an approximately 2% decline in cannabis industry jobs from 2022 to 2023.
Vangst is a Denver, Colorado-based cannabis industry hiring platform and Whitney Economics is a Portland, Oregon-based cannabis and hemp industry data and economic research firm.
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