(Source: MIRS.news, Published 09/27/2024) Michigan ripped to the top of the job growth market in the cannabis space and came in second behind California for the number of cannabis jobs per state as of March, according to a new industry report.

The Vangst Cannabis Staffing Platform 2024 Cannabis Jobs Report has Michigan adding 11,431 jobs over the past year, giving it the largest increase in the nation. The report showed 46,746 jobs in the cannabis market as of March, while the Cannabis Regulatory Agency put 35,688 jobs in March linked directly to medical or recreational license. 

Hochstedler, Young, and Associates cannabis consultant Nick Young said that not all businesses need a marijuana license to be considered as part of the cannabis market. He pointed to a Detroit manufacturer that makes a machine to produce pre-rolled cigarettes.

The CRA has also shown that the jobs in the cannabis market have continued to grow, with the August job numbers showing there were nearly 2,000 jobs added since March to the licensed side.

Young said there was a good answer for the ramp-up of labor, because the industry was headed into harvest season and required seasonal staff for the increased work.

He said it wasn’t all seasonal and there were stores still opening up, despite the prices being at an all-time low and over-saturation looming large on the horizon. 

“We’re on track to be at $3.3 billion in sales this year and that is with a lower revenue-per-item amount, so our volume is still tremendously high,” he said.

He said he does see a down-turn in the future of the cannabis market, with companies starting to automate the tasks that were once done by hand, such as rolling the pre-rolls with machines made in Detroit.

Until that time, the cannabis market could continue to pull jobs from the restaurant and hospitality industries. With tip wages on the line, the budtender positions and behind the house jobs are paying much higher base wages, but the tips aren’t as large.

Young said a budtender could walk out with $100 extra, but they usually end up making $18 to $20 per hour, where waitstaff makes nearly $6 per hour.

He said a person touching a plant needs to be Serve Safe certified.

“So, a lot of these people who are coming from the restaurant world, they already have the piece of paper that they really need,” Young said.

He said many of the jobs that make up the cannabis industry are already in the Michigan wheelhouse, with manufacturing and agriculture being near the top. 

While the lower end of the industry tends to pay higher wages, the upper end of the industry tends to pay lower wages. He said a chemist working for Dow Chemical would more likely make more money, but the people in the industry see it more as a passion project.

“There’s a lot of people in cannabis who aren’t necessarily in it for the money. They’re in it for the impact and so you see people take the ‘hometown discount’ to get into the industry and really impact change,” Young said.

With an impending cliff, Young said he could see layoffs coming to the industry in 2025, but he wasn’t sure if those jobs would end up being eliminated completely or just moved into a different company as buyouts and mergers rapidly snowballed.

He said the industry was already at the breaking point and pointed to the amount of synthetic oil flooding the Michigan market. 

“There’s an independent lab that came out and said four out of every 10 vape cartridges are fake and have synthetic oil in them, which is a huge problem,” Young said.

With all this, lobby groups and public relations firms are needed to approach legislators as more businesses cut corners, bend rules, or skirt regulations, he said.

“There’s going to be a group of people who are sitting there saying, if we do nothing, then only bad actors will be left, and I’m starting to see those people see the light where they’re going to have to spend money to enact change in the direction they need to,” Young said.