One of the fastest-growing industries in the United States!

Legal cannabis is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. However, the federal Department of Labor can’t effectively track the number of legal cannabis jobs nationwide because of federal prohibition. Given that there isn’t a government agency that tracks state-level jobs from legalization, efforts to track the economic impact of legalization have fallen to non-profits and economists – for this email, we’ll run through two essential findings from Leafly’s 2022 Cannabis Jobs Report.

First, the legal cannabis market is one of the fastest-growing industries in America today and already includes more employees than many professions. As of January 2022, the legal cannabis industry supported 428,059 jobs. That is a staggering number, larger than the number of bank tellers (423,570) or insurance agents (409,950) in the country and only slightly behind the total number of plumbers (451,390).

Second, the growth rate for the industry is astounding – 33% job growth in 2021. That growth rate in a year is substantial, but Leafly estimates that a nationwide cannabis industry would support over 1.5 million jobs in a prohibition-free United States.

The legal cannabis industry continues to grow, especially as more and more states end marijuana prohibition. If Noem hadn’t overturned Amendment A, South Dakotans could already be reaping the benefits of legalization. However, it isn’t too late to make the correct choice on cannabis policy – and frankly, I’m not sure we can afford to miss out.