Why Cannabis Jobs Are Going Up In Smoke
“The biggest challenge is the lack of capital”
Here’s a real buzzkill for the cannabis industry: After six years of double-digit job growth, employment dropped 2% in 2023.
According to a new report by the cannabis job platform Vangst, which was exclusively obtained by Forbes, there are currently 417,493 legal cannabis jobs in the United States, down from 428,059 in 2022. That 2% drop might not sound like a dramatic change, but as marijuana has become the country’s sixth-most valuable cash crop, the dip signals that the $26 billion industry is going through a “reset,” according to Karson Humiston, founder and CEO of the Denver-based Vangst.
“The industry has faced some headwinds, but the biggest challenge is the lack of capital,” says Humiston. “Venture funding in cannabis was down 96% year over year. Companies need capital to invest in their business and, a company’s number-one expense is labor.”
According to Humiston, almost every brand in the industry reduced its head count over the past year and several factor are to blame, including the end of the pandemic and botched legalization efforts.
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