As of January 2022, there are 428,059 full-time equivalent jobs supported by legal cannabis, according to a recently released report generated by cannabis information firm Leafly and Whitney Economics.
Last year, the cannabis industry created an average of 280 new jobs per day.
The 2022 Leafly Jobs Report serves as the nation’s most comprehensive cannabis employment study. The 428,059 jobs include cultivation and retail sales work, as well as indirect ancillary jobs serving licensed companies or those dependent on legal cannabis sales.
Per the analysis, the cannabis industry is now a $25 billion business domestically, has experienced a 33 percent increase in jobs in a single year, and showed a fifth consecutive year in which annual jobs growth was more than 27 percent.
Ancillary jobs generated within the cannabis industry include accounting, human resources, legal affairs, regulatory compliance, security, maintenance, and construction.
Work within cannabis media, technology platforms, public relations, lobbying, non-cannabis product suppliers, and industry associations are included in the indirect jobs category.
Leafly indicated its news and data teams have provided an annual analysis of employment in the legal cannabis sector since 2017, while cannabis and hemp business consulting, data, and economic research entity Whitney Economics has partnered with Leafly on the cannabis employment documenting project since 2019.