How many jobs are in America’s legal cannabis industry?

The 2022 Leafly Jobs Report found 428,059 full-time equivalent jobs supported by legal cannabis as of January 2022. Last year, the cannabis industry created an average of 280 new jobs per day.

That’s a 33% increase in jobs in a single year. And it marks the fifth year in a row of annual jobs growth greater than 27%.

The annual Leafly Jobs Report, produced in partnership with Whitney Economics, is the nation’s most comprehensive cannabis employment study.

Read and download the full report below.

We count cannabis jobs because cannabis jobs count

Federal prohibition prevents the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics from counting state-legal marijuana jobs.

Since 2017, Leafly’s news and data teams have filled that gap with a yearly analysis of employment in the legal cannabis sector. Whitney Economics, a global leader in cannabis and hemp business consulting, data, and economic research, has partnered with Leafly on the project since 2019.

Those 428,059 jobs include direct cannabis jobs like cultivation and retail sales—what are often called “plant-touching jobs”—as well as indirect ancillary jobs that serve licensed companies or depend on legal cannabis sales. Ancillary jobs include work in accounting, human resources, legal affairs, regulatory compliance, security, maintenance, and construction. Also included are indirect jobs in cannabis media, technology platforms, public relations, lobbying, non-cannabis product suppliers, and industry associations. [Read More @ Leafly]