Cannabis-related job searches have skyrocketed over 650% in the past three years. Here's who's hiring and what skills you need to get in.
- Cannabis-related job postings in the US have quadrupled in the past three years as more states legalize the drug, according to a new report from the job site Indeed.
- During the same time period, cannabis-related job searches increased 650%, indicated a huge demand for jobs in the brand new industry.
- See below for a list of who's hiring, and sign up for our new cannabis newsletter, Cultivated.
Cannabis legalization is spreading around the US and job-seekers are highly interested in the brand-new industry, according to a new report from the employment-search firm Indeed.
Since 2016, cannabis-related job searches have skyrocketed 650%, according to Indeed economist Andrew Flowers. Over the same time period, the number of cannabis-related job postings has quadrupled, from 231 per million in May 2016 to 915 per million in May 2019.
"There are very few industries have seen a seven-fold increase in job seeker searches in three years," Flowers said in an interview. "Very few."
In the past year alone, cannabis-related job postings have increased by 90%, according to Flowers. And if you want to land a gig in the booming industry, your best bet is probably in sales and retail.
The most common cannabis job posting on Indeed is for "budtender," which is a person who works at a dispensary and helps customers navigate the plethora of pot products. Coming in at number two is "sales associate" followed by "sales representative."
The second basket of popular cannabis jobs is all around the growing and cultivating of the crop itself, for positions like "grower," "trimmer," and "agriculture technician." And third, medical cannabis companies are hiring pharmacists and physicians to help research cannabis-based drugs and diagnose patients.
This year, Harvest has the most job openings among US cannabis companies, followed by Smoker's Choice, and Cresco Labs. On the cannabis-tech side, Weedmaps is hiring lots of data scientists and software engineers.
A quick scan of Harvest's job board shows hiring across divisions include sales, marketing, retail, and legal, meaning there is lots of opportunity for those with different skill sets to jump into the cannabis industry.
Cannabis is legal for adult use in 11 states and medically legal in 33 states. Illinois became the latest state to legalize earlier this year.
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