MJBizMag April 2021 - 53

Cannabis Job Numbers Climbing
Influx of capital, expanded legalization and social-distancing regulations
contribute to uptick in hiring
By Omar Sacirbey
I
f job creation and hiring are measures
of an industry's growth, then cannabis
is going gangbusters.
That means cannabis executives must
use diligence and savvy when sifting
through resumes. While the quality
of candidates for marijuana jobs has
improved significantly in recent years,
only a handful of applicants will be a
truly great match for your business.
" The type of talent that we were trying
to attract in 2017 wasn't interested (in the
marijuana sector). Now, they're banging
down our door, " said Joey Muehlstein,
director of talent acquisition at Green
Thumb Industries, a Chicago-based
multistate operator that in 2020 hired
about 1,300 people, roughly doubling its
workforce.
Green Thumb received more than 700
applications for a recent job listing for
a regional retail director. " We get to be
very selective in who we speak to and
who we'd like to interview, " Muehlstein
added. " The bar is raised. "
In this type of environment, Kara
Bradford, CEO of Seattle-based Viridian
Staffing, advises companies to take
advantage of the availability of the talent
while continuing to practice prudence.
" Companies have pulled back from
hiring as aggressively as they would have
because of COVID-19-and being conservative
in your hiring strategy for 2021
is recommended, " she said. " But I don't
think that they need to be as conservative
as they were in 2020. Companies that
have been holding back a little might be
able to take some calculated risks that
they weren't taking this past year. "
Bouncing Back From
Pandemic Layoffs
" Cannabis jobs are expanding super fast.
In the past three or four years, we've
seen absolute expansion, 30% year-overyear
growth in jobs being created, " said
Liesl Bernard, CEO of CannabizTeam,
a San Diego-based national recruiting
firm focused on the marijuana industry.
Bernard said there are roughly 250,000
full-time cannabis-related jobs in the
United States.
" We see that number growing
exponentially over the next few years, "
she said. " And we're expecting there to be
half-a-million jobs three years from now
in the cannabis industry. "
Karson Humiston, CEO of Vangst,
a national cannabis-focused recruiting
firm based in Denver, was even
more bullish. She said the number of
marijuana industry jobs has grown from
120,000 in 2017 to 321,000 today.
" Cannabis businesses are raising
money again, and capital is moving into
the space, " Humiston said. " We think
2021 will be the biggest hiring year the
cannabis industry has ever seen. "
Marijuana companies are back to
robust hiring after job cuts and hiring
freezes spawned by a dearth of capital in
2019 and pandemic-induced recession in
early 2020, observers said.
Key factors driving hiring include the
sales boom that cannabis has enjoyed in
the past year, complemented by increased
funding that is allowing marijuana
companies to expand staff numbers.
" In the beginning of the pandemic,
we saw mass layoffs and mass hiring
freezes across the majority of cannabis
businesses, " Humiston said, adding
that the trend affected roughly 80% of
companies in the industry. But many of
those businesses ultimately recovered.
A year later, Humiston said, her clients
are again doing well, hiring and have
" really promising plans " for 2021.
'Essential' Effect
The " essential business " designation
bestowed upon marijuana companies
in nearly 30 states with legal cannabis
markets is fueling the hiring as well.
" Once it was clear that cannabis
was deemed essential and that online
ordering and delivery was a trend, we
started seeing a lot of those ancillary
businesses do really well, which resulted
in them having the ability to hire more
people as well as raise more capital, "
Humiston said.
She added that companies that raise
capital usually spend some of it on
new hires.
Humiston cited Dutchie, a national
online ordering platform based in Bend,
Oregon, and Grassdoor, a Los Angeles
delivery service, as examples of companies
that profited because of pandemic regulations
and were able to hire more staff.
Dutchie, for example, roughly tripled
its staff in 2020, from 40 people to
about 120, Chief Financial Officer Ross
Lipson said.
" The pandemic really boosted the need
for businesses like theirs, " Humiston said.
Implementing social-distancing
protocols also prompted hiring at some
companies. For example, a producerApril
2021 | mjbizdaily.com 53
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MJBizMag April 2021

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