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The Marijuana Industry: a Paramount Job Creator for the U.S.

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Market research group New Frontier Data released a new report which estimates that the marijuana industry can create 250,000 more jobs by 2020. This surpasses speculated job growth numbers in U.S. manufacturing, government job and utilities industries.

In 2016, the legal marijuana industry was worth at roughly $7.2 billion, according to Forbes. Government jobs are expected to decrease by 383,000 by the year 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS also estimates that there will be 814,000 fewer manufacturing jobs and 47,000 fewer jobs in utilities companies.

Moving forward, the marijuana industry is projected to grow annually at roughly 17 percent. By 2020, the medical marijuana industry should be valued at near $13.3 billion. Recreational sales are estimated to reach $11.2 billion by 2020.

Giadha Aguirre De Carcer, founder of New Frontier Data, said, “These numbers confirm that cannabis is a major economic driver and job-creation engine for the U.S. economy. While we see a potential drop in the total number of U.S. jobs created in 2017, as reported by Kiplinger, as well as an overall expected drop in GDP growth, the cannabis industry continues to be a positive contributing factor to growth at a time of potential decline. We expect the cannabis industry’s growth to be slowed down to some degree in the next three to five years, however with projected total market sales to exceed $24-billion by 2025, and the possibility of almost 300,000 jobs by 2020, it remains a positive economic force in the U.S.”

Marijuana courses are now available at several universities, like Oaksterdam University in California.

Executive Chancellor of Oaksterdam University, Dale Sky Jones, said, “The cannabis job market is growing, but many who are interested in the industry have been fearful of prosecution by the DEA> But that is changing. A U.S. appeals court recently decided unanimously that the federal government may not prosecute people who grow and distribute medical marijuana if they comply with state laws. While this ruling currently affects states within the 9th Circuit, the decision will influence other circuits across the country. This is huge, and it is very likely that more people will now feel safer about entering the cannabis industry.”

Photo: esquire.com