According to a new report from job posting website Glassdoor, legal weed companies across the country have increased their demand for new employees by 76% from December 2017 to December 2018, with more than 1,500 cannabis industry job opportunities posted on the site in the final month of last year.
In addition to the hiring boom, the Glassdoor report noted that many of those jobs come with some decent-sized paychecks to boot, with new demands for high-skilled workers driving the median salary at cannabis companies to $58,511, more than 10% higher than the national average.
“With investment pouring in and more small and medium businesses popping up, demand is increasing for professional and technical workers who can manage and scale businesses,” Daniel Zhao, an economist and data scientist at Glassdoor, wrote. “Workers with higher education and skills in fields as varied as marketing, horticulture, and logistics will only be more desirable as the industry grows.”
Outside of budtenders, accountants, and various pencil-pushing roles, the newly-published cannabis job report shows a high demand for brand ambassadors, and a slew of technical jobs like marketing manager, assurance manager, and product manager. After all, someone’s gotta make sure that taxes get paid.
And while cannabis jobs might previously have been exclusive to states like California, Oregon, and Colorado, the expansion of state-level medical marijuana programs across the nation has opened the employment doors for job seekers in states like Illinois, New York, Florida, and more.
Even with San Francisco and Los Angeles still taking the cake as the top two locales with the most industry openings, New York City, Chicago, and Miami all fell within the top 10. And that’s not even mentioning job opportunities in Canada, which wasn’t included in Glassdoor’s US-specific report.
So if you’ve been waiting for a sign from above to find your way into your state’s local pot industry, take this is a recommendation, get your resume ready, and try and elevate your employment.
(h/t CNBC)
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