With medical marijuana in 30 states and recreational in 9, many roles in the cannabis industry needed to be filled. So far, the industry has been credited for creating well over 100,000 full-time employees in the United States. In fact, newer data from Vangst shows cannabis industry employee salaries are increasing. Not to mention more positions and benefits.
Vangst is an employment agency responsible for connecting tens of thousands of job seekers with the budding cannabis industry. The survey data comes from over 1200 participating cannabis employers, as well as internal data collected by Vangst.
More Job Opportunities
A few years ago, you’d be lucky to find more than a few trimmer or budtender job listings. Now, the number of opportunities in the industry is exploding.
According to the data from Vangst, there has been a 690 percent increase in job listings from the start of 2017 to August of 2018.
The most popular positions in the industry require varied levels of skill.
The two most common opportunities for people with limited experience looking to work with legal marijuana are trimmers and budtenders. They’re essentially the retail and warehouse employees of the weed world.
A position that doesn’t require much experience working with weed is the outside sales representative. Their job is to develop relationships and new accounts to meet sales goals.
Positions that may require a special set of skills include compliance and dispensary store management. Compliance managers are in charge of ensuring the company abides by all laws and regulations. A dispensary store manager is responsible for hiring, training and managing retail employees.
The two jobs that require hands-on experience with cannabis are the directors of extraction and cultivation. These are the two highest-paid careers amongst Vangst’s list of the hottest jobs in the industry.
Salaries and Benefits
Job listings and weed workers aren’t the only two numbers on the rise.
In fact, the average salary of legal marijuana employees has increased by 16.1 percent between 2017 and 2018. That number is projected to grow by 220 percent next year.
On average, here are the percentages of cannabis companies providing their employees with benefits:
- 71% offer medical coverage
- 51% offer dental coverage
- 46% offer vision coverage
- 46% offer all three
Of the cannabis employers surveyed, only 21 percent did not offer any employee benefits.
On the other hand close to two-thirds of employers offer medical insurance, while about half offer dental and vision.
With more states going legal and the majority of Americans supporting legalization, the growth we’ve seen is just a start. Opportunities in the cannabis industry are at an all-time high and the people with higher experience levels are being handsomely compensated.
