Legal Cannabis Industry Sheds Jobs For First Time

Key points in this article:

• There were an estimate 412,500 people employed in legal cannabis in the U.S. in early 2026, down 2.7% from the prior year.
• Annual U.S. cannabis retail revenue dropped to $29.1 billion in 2025, the first year-over-year decline since adult-use legalization.
• Legal cannabis sales capture about 30% of the overall demand, leaving most cannabis industry activity – sales and employment – in unregulated channels.

The legal U.S. cannabis industry employed 412,500 people in early 2026, a 2.7% decline from the 425,002 legal marijuana jobs reported last year.

National legal retail revenue also fell to $29.1 billion in 2025 – the first year-over-year decline since adult-use sales began in 2014, according to the newly released U.S. Cannabis Jobs Report 2026, authored by Denver-based cannabis staffing platform Vangst and Oregon-based cannabis data and research company Whitney Economics.

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