A portrait of a researcher in an apron carries a wooden box and collects samples of legally grown cannabis plants and hemp inflorescences in greenhouses for inspection and quality control for medicinal purposes.
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A new report reveals that both cannabis jobs and revenue have dropped for the first time since legal adult-use cannabis markets started expanding, amid price compression caused by oversupply in cultivation markets.
The U.S. Cannabis Jobs Report 2026, published by the recruitment platform for the legal cannabis industry Vangst, in collaboration with cannabis consulting firm Whitney Economics, recorded an employment decline of about 2.7–2.9%, leaving 412,500 workers in early 2026, down from 425,002 in the same period last year. Last year, the number of jobs also dropped, as in 2024, there were 440,445 jobs, signalling a negative trend.
Despite such a decline, the job market appears stable, considering it has continued to employ over 400,000 people in the industry since 2022.
However, this year, the report also records a decline in revenue for the first time since Colorado and Washington started to sell legal recreational cannabis in 2014. Total legal sales fell to $29.1 billion, a 3.3% decrease compared to last year, when it recorded $30.1 billion.
This marks the first time that cannabis jobs and revenue have both declined simultaneously.
The report says that this decline is due to pricing compression. While the volume of items bought remained about the same or even slightly increased, prices of cannabis dropped, caused by oversupply in cultivation markets. This means that the same basket of products today costs less than it did last year, which led to a revenue drop.
Job data, despite being in decline, is considered a mature signal by the authors of the report after eight years of double-digit growth from 2014 to 2022. States like Colorado, California, Washington, Oregon, and Michigan are considered mature, while New York, Maryland, and Ohio are considered emerging markets.
New York, for example, legalized adult-use cannabis in 2021 and started its sales in December 2022. Despite several issues with the implementation of the new policy and trying to solve the problems of illicit cannabis shops, it recorded a 129.3% increase in employment in the cannabis sector in 2025 compared to 2024. States like Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey, Utah, and Washington, D.C., have recorded double-digit growth in employment. In contrast, California, Florida, Illinois, and Arkansas have recorded double-digit decreases in jobs.
One of the factors that plays a role in the employment decrease is the licenses. The report says that "states with relatively unlimited licenses tend to drive the most employment," although these states have the most downside risks "due to harvest oversaturation and price declines."
More than a dozen states experienced license declines in 2025 due to business closures, mergers, consolidations, or regulatory restrictions. Total cannabis licenses fell by more than 1,200 nationwide, although retail licenses were the only major category to increase.
In the cannabis job market, however, the authors of the report expect a shift in labor demand. While cultivation remains the largest category, accounting for about 31% of cannabis jobs, future workforce growth is expected to move away from cultivation and toward manufacturing and retail.
"There's simply too much harvest for the industry to accommodate," the report reads, adding that "it may be necessary if the industry is going to find balance and a solid pricing floor that allows manufacturers and retailers to survive and thrive."
Despite the report recording a decline in both employment and revenue due to pricing compression, Whitney Economics's forecast sees a modest amount of growth in U.S. retail sales of $30.5 billion in 2026.
The report comes at a crucial moment for the cannabis industry in the U.S. President Donald Trump’s December 2025 executive order directed federal officials to advance cannabis rescheduling and support medical cannabis and cannabidiol research. In April, the Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Administration issued a final order moving FDA-approved cannabis products and state-licensed medical cannabis products to Schedule III, while also launching an expedited hearing on broader cannabis rescheduling. The hearing is set to begin on June 29. However, it is still early to say what implications this may have in the cannabis jobs market, as it will depend much on the implementation of the political decisions.
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