Companies and Brands

The Pot Industry Will Soon Employ As Many People As the US Army

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: June 10, 2019 8:30 am

Last Updated: January 6, 2020 3:54 am

Cannabis, commonly known as marijuana, is legal for recreational use in 10 states and for medical use in 38. Growing, processing and selling cannabis has become a large enough business that several companies in the industry have gone public. New research shows that the industry will create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the United States over the next two or three years.

The new Marijuana Business Factbook 2019 forecasts that the industry will support 475,000 full-time equivalent jobs by 2023. That is about the same number of full-time workers as the U.S. Army has. While the U.S. Army is not growing at more than a nominal rate, the employment provided by the marijuana will continue to surge for a number of years. Employment levels could well be above 500,000 by the middle of the next decade. Some experts put the jobs the industry could create at over a million.

Anyone who doubts that pot has become big business should look at the sales numbers, as well as taxes and employment. The researchers who put together the figures for this year’s Marijuana Business Factbook reported, “Legal sales, however, represent only a fraction of the estimated total demand for recreational cannabis, which we estimate at $50 billion-$60 billion.” That is more than double the annual revenue of McDonald’s. At the current growth rate, in two or three years, pot revenue should match the total revenue of Target, the eighth largest retailer in America.

As the marijuana business has grown, it has been treated more and more like a major industry or a public company operation. It is so heavily taxed today that, in Colorado, revenue to the state from sales has risen above $200 million. The number is expected to be much higher in the largest states, particularly California. Many experts point out that if all illegal sales of marijuana were eliminated, state tax revenue would surge into the billions of dollars.

Despite the size and growth of the cannabis business, under federal law growth, production and sales continue to be illegal. If this were to change, the federal government would enjoy some of the bonanzas of tax revenue, and the employment base of the pot business would dwarf the U.S. Army soon. In fact, one of the 10 largest marijuana companies could become a large national employer. Based on the most recent available full- and part-time employee counts, 24/7 Wall St. analyzed the largest employers in each of the 50 states.