It’s Monday. That dastardly alarm clock starts screaming at the crack of dawn to let you know that it is time to get up for work. You hit to snooze button – And I mean you really let it have it – before pulling the covers up over the top of your head to ponder, and quite possibly even dread, the weight of the day ahead. By the time the alarm chirps a second time, the impending doom has fully infiltrated your psyche and begins trying to convince you that if you quit that measly job today, you’ll be able to find a better one within a week. You hit the snooze again, giving yourself approximately ten extra minutes to decide whether to climb out of bed and put on pants or call up the big boss man and say, “Hey man, it’s been real, but I no longer wish to work for you.” Your version might contain more colorful language. But for the sake of this article, lets keep it classy.
At that point you realize a proper head change might help provide you with the enthusiasm needed to go from “hating” your place of employment to tolerating it for at least another eight hours. You pick up the bowl off the nightstand, which you loaded the night before with a nice strain of cannabis, and engage in a much-needed wake and bake ritual. This is your Hail Mary. Otherwise, you might actually phone that boss of yours in the next couple of minutes and tell him to “take this job and shove it.” You take a couple of nice hits and consider once again the act of getting out of bed. All of sudden an epiphany strikes – eureka! “If only I could get a job working in the cannabis industry,” you tell yourself. “I would never be unhappy with the daily grind ever again.”
This situation is not uncommon. A 2017 Gallup poll found that 85 percent of the American workforce “hates” their job. Alongside the complaint of not earning enough money, most workers argue that their current position leaves them overworked and unfulfilled. In other words, they feel just like you do.
But the cannabis industry is not only providing people with interesting career options, it pays more than the average salary. It is for this reason that some restaurants in legal marijuana states are reportedly having difficulty finding and keeping employees. After all, why settle for minimum wage to wash dishes all day when the starting wages at some cultivation centers is between $12-$15 per hour? What’s more is prospective cannabis industry employees are not required to have any formal education or training to secure these new positions. They just have to be in the right place at the right time. But where is that exactly?
Marijuana is now legal in well over half the nation. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized for medicinal use, while eight others have ended marijuana prohibition altogether. At a time when some traditional industries are facing downsizing and extinction, the cannabis industry is just getting started – and it’s showing no signs of a slow down. In fact, some of the latest data From New Frontier shows there will be more cannabis industry jobs available in the next couple of year than the combination of the government and manufacturing sector. It is a possible a quarter of a million new jobs will be filled by 2020 to keep the multi-billion dollar cannabis industry afloat.
According to ZipRecruiter, cannabis industry jobs are easier to come by in some areas than others. But positions in this field are becoming more widespread. Last year represented the biggest gain in cannabis employment since the walls of prohibition started to crumble. Interestingly, the website says hundreds of new positions are being posted each quarter for workers interested in a career in the cannabis trade. Already in 2018, the cannabis job market is off to a lunatic start. This mostly stems from the recent launch of California’s recreational marijuana market. But there are 10 cities in the nation where workers can find the most opportunity in the business of growing and selling weed. Here’s where you might have the best luck:
Top 10 Cities To Find Work In The Cannabis Industry
1. Denver, Colorado
2. Los Angeles, California
3. San Francisco, California
4. Seattle, Washington
5. Portland, Oregon
6. Sacramento, California
7. Spokane, Washington
8. Miami, Florida
9. Chicago, Illinois
10. Boston, Massachusetts
The marijuana job market is presently out pacing other leading fields, like tech and healthcare. There are now in upwards of 230,000 people collecting a paycheck for their work in legal cannabis. A recent report from Arcview Market Research predicts there will be 400,000 cannabis workers by 2021.
This means no matter where a person lives in the United States, pot-relarted positions are popping up relatively close by with each passing day.
So, if you are currently reading this article from the comforts of bed, perhaps after bashing the snooze button with extreme prejudice, rest easy. You have not missed the boat. Now is a prime time for taking a leap toward a career in cannabis. Of course, we do not suggest resigning from your current position until you get something else lined up. There is no need to burn bridges. Just know there is a way out of dead-end employment for those interested in taking the cannabis industry to the next level.
Now, get to it!
