Cannabis jobs grew 4% in Oregon in 2020, a rough year for employment generally but a landmark year for the industry as it topped $1 billion in sales for the first time.
Still, other states moved past Oregon on the cannabis employment leaderboard as legalization spread, bigger-population markets matured, and the state’s potentially huge industry remained hemmed in by federal prohibition.
The latest Leafly Jobs Report put Oregon cannabis employment at 17,981 in 2020, up from a revised 17,294 in 2019.
That puts Oregon seventh in the nation in cannabis employment, down from fourth in 2019. The three states that climbed past Oregon: Florida, where a medical-only market continued to expand rapidly; Arizona, which added adult-use to an existing medical program; and Michigan, where adult-use sales began in December 2019.
Nationwide, the Leafly report — prepared with Portland-based Whitney Economics — put cannabis employment at 321,000 full-time-equivalent positions. That was up 77,300 from 2019, a 32% gain.
The report called that “an astonishing figure in the worst year for U.S. economic growth since World War II.”
But in a year that saw a 71% increase in sales, to $18.3 billion, the job growth fell short of what might have been expected, the Leafly report said. The pandemic boosted sales, the report said, but social-distancing and occupancy requirements, along with reduced employee availability, stifled job growth.
The report also noted “troubling racial and gender disparities” in the industry. Comprehensive information is limited, but one advocacy group’s database showed only about 500 Black-owned businesses out of an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 U.S. cannabis companies.
In Oregon, a cannabis equity bill with provision to support ownership among “individuals who are American Indian, Alaska Native, Black, Hispanic or Latinx” is up for consideration in the Legislature.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, chairman of the Finance Committee, is among a trio of U.S. senators vowing to pursue a comprehensive federal cannabis reform bill. That could pave the way for Oregon cannabis sales outside the state and vast expansion in employment.
-Portland Business Journal