Cannabis industry added nearly 23K jobs in 2023: Vangst

Vangst releases second Jobs Report.

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Cannabis industry job platform Vangst has released its 2024 Jobs Report.

Completed in partnership with Whitney Economics, the report examines each cannabis market's regulatory environment, investment climate, license data and past performance to document key changes and determine the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs supported by the legal industry.

The second Vangst Jobs Report highlighted several positive trends within the legal cannabis industry, including job creation and sales growth. Specifically, the legal cannabis industry added 22,952 new jobs in 2023, a 5.4% year-over-year increase that brings the total number of full-time equivalent jobs supported by the industry to 440,445. The increase in full-time equivalent jobs is supported by the $28.8 billion in legal cannabis products sold in 2023, an increase of $2.7 billion over the previous year.

Key findings include:

Michigan and Missouri led the nation in cannabis job growth, adding more than 10,000 jobs each in 2023.
New York and New Jersey continue to grow steadily, adding 2,050 and 4,870 jobs, respectively.
The earliest legal states — California, Colorado, Washington, and Oregon — experienced the greatest job losses.
Ohio, New York, New Jersey and Maryland will be the hot job markets in 2024, with thousands of new hires needed in the coming year.

Look for a moderate 9% growth in overall revenue in 2024, with more expansion expected in 2025 as lower interest rates make investment and growth affordable once more.

The legal cannabis industry is expected to continue experiencing moderate growth in 2024. Overall revenue is projected to rise by 9% in 2024, with more expansion expected in 2025. Ohio, New York, New Jersey and Maryland are also uniquely positioned to attract professionals to the industry, with thousands of new hires needed in the coming year.

"When we started Vangst, there were less than 50,000 full-time employees in the cannabis industry,” said Karson Humiston, Vangst founder and CEO. “Less than a decade later, there are 440,445 full-time employees in cannabis, a number that will continue growing. I am very proud of the work our team does to create the industry's go-to-report, to examine jobs per state, something that the federal government does not do for our industry."

Federal prohibition prevents federal and state labor departments from compiling data on the legal cannabis industry.

Alyse Thompson-Richards has held many positions with BNP Media, first serving as an intern at Candy Industry Magazine in summer 2012. She joined Candy Industry's staff full time as associate editor in August 2016 after a few years at newspapers in West-Central Illinois, becoming managing editor in March 2019. Alyse has also served on Cannabis Products Insider since March 2019. She has bachelor’s degrees in journalism and Spanish from Western Illinois University.