For decades, marijuana was associated in the public mind with slackers who are too stoned and lazy to find employment. A new report this week underscores how the opposite is true.

The truth is, marijuana is a jobs-generating juggernaut that’s putting people to work in a wide variety of occupations.

The marijuana industry in the U.S. continued to rapidly expand in 2021, with nearly 500,000 people currently employed full-time in the cannabis sector, according to a report released Wednesday by marijuana research firm Leafly.

Leafly expects that jobs growth to explode in 2022, as highly populated states such as New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut get ready to initiate legal retail sales of cannabis.

Last year was the first time that job creation in the marijuana industry exceeded six figures, with 107,059 new jobs created, compared to 32,700 in 2019 and 77,300 in 2020.

According to The 2022 Leafly Jobs Report, there were 428,059 people employed in the marijuana space by the end of 2021, compared to 321,000 the previous year (see chart).

Those 428,059 jobs encompass direct marijuana jobs such as cultivation and retail sales (aka “plant-touching jobs”) as well as ancillary jobs. Those indirect ancillary jobs include work in accounting, human resources, legal affairs, regulatory compliance, security, maintenance, and construction.

Under the category of indirect jobs, Leafly also included cannabis-related media, software, public relations, lobbying, non-cannabis product suppliers, and trade associations.

One sector that has enjoyed enormous growth in marijuana-oriented activity is real estate. An influx of well-funded ganja-preneurs is revitalizing scores of local communities around the country, creating new jobs and lifting residential and commercial real estate prices. Gentrification increasingly includes a marijuana component, replete with edible boutiques, cannabis cafes and vaping parlors.

Investors are buying warehouse, factory and retail space in states that have legalized marijuana, according to recent research from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Many of these spaces were rendered empty (and affordable) by pandemic-caused bankruptcies.

Another booming cannabis-related jobs category is biotech. Pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop new pot-based medicines, creating enormous demand for qualified scientists, lab workers, and researchers.

According to Wednesday’s Leafly report, California retained its title in 2021 as the nation’s largest marijuana employer, with $5.1 billion in 2021 sales supporting 83,607 jobs.

Marijuana: the jobs champ…

As the Leafly report states: “The $10.73 billion legal cannabis industry is America’s single greatest job-creation engine, growing at a rate faster than any other industry over the past four years.”

Leafly’s Annual Jobs Report is based on employment estimation methods from a variety of marijuana data companies: MPG Consulting, Whitney Economics, BDS Analytics, New Frontier Data, Vangst, and Headset, as well as state regulatory data.

These employment generation numbers are all the more impressive, considering the backdrop of a persistent pandemic and the emergence of unexpected obstacles such as the Omicron variant of COVID. Indeed, the marijuana industry seems to thrive on adversity, as consumers increasingly seek cannabis to alleviate psychological stress and physical ailments.

As traditional leisure and hospitality activities have struggled due to COVID, marijuana has picked up the slack and become an essential service. In turn, this demand has filled the coffers (and lifted the share prices) of marijuana companies.

Marijuana companies from coast to coast report a shortage of skilled workers and they’ve been hiring at a furious pace to meet demand.

Watch This Video: The Weekly Weed Report (2-22-22)

The cannabis industry is one of the country’s fastest-growing industries. In 2021, legal sales reached $17.5 billion. By 2030, annual sales across the U.S. will reach $100 billion, according to investment banking firm Cowen.

One of the marijuana industry’s allures is its resistance to risks, such as Federal Reserve tightening or the Russia-Ukraine crisis, that bedevil other sectors.

The developments I’ve just described underscore the appeal of marijuana companies as investments. Every portfolio deserves exposure to the exponential profits in cannabis. The legalization of weed is a mega-trend with multi-year momentum. For our latest report on the best investment opportunities in cannabis, click here.

John Persinos is the editor-in-chief of Marijuana Investing Daily. You can reach him at: mailbag@investingdaily.com.

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