Michigan’s cannabis industry continues to expand.
Buoyed by the opening of the first licensed retail stores in Detroit, Michigan added 11,341 jobs last year to solidify its spot as the nation’s second-largest cannabis market, behind only California, according to data compiled by Vangst and Whitney Economics. Michigan’s cannabis industry employed 46,746 full-time workers as of March 2024 — and California’s employed 78,618.
The Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency reported that as of March 2024, the state’s cannabis industry directly employed 35,688.
“Now more than ever, America’s cannabis industry is a state-by-state, region-by-region job market,” the report’s authors wrote. “Young markets in recently legalized states continue to expand and create employment opportunities, while labor demand in mature markets contracts along with revenue and profit margins.”
The report found that 440,445 full-time equivalent jobs were supported by legal cannabis nationwide as of early 2024. That job total represented a 5.4% year-over-year increase. Nationwide, annual cannabis sales increased to $28.8 billion in 2023, a 10.3% rise over 2022’s sales. That figure included all state-regulated medical and adult-use sales but did not include hemp-derived products.
Year-over-year growth was driven largely by expanding new and maturing markets in the Midwest, like Michigan Missouri and Illinois, and East Coast markets, like New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, according to the report. Out of the 38 markets in the United States that provide legal medical or adult-use access, 10 states experienced negative job growth last year.
The authors called Michigan’s growth “astonishing,” with sales of more than $3 billion, up 33% over 2022. The state added 130 new legal retail outlets in 2023. With a population of 10 million, Whitney Economics calculated that the state’s 2023 sales met roughly 85% to 90% of Michigan’s natural in-state consumer demand.
