It turns out smoking trees is more profitable than cutting them down. The first government report on employment in our state’s legal weed economy found that more than twice as many people work in the legal pot industry than work in the lumber industry.
The report, conducted by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP), found that more than 10,000 people were employed by legal weed businesses in 2016, and legal pot businesses paid almost $300 million in wages during the industry’s first two and a half years. In contrast, the state’s lumber industry only employed an average of 3,800 people during 2016, according to the state Employment Security Department’s estimates.
This study marks the first time the government has analyzed employment in Washington’s legal weed industry, and it provides the most precise public analysis to date of the industry’s employment figures. The study—part of a larger cost-benefit analysis the WSIPP is conducting on cannabis legalization—narrowly focuses on employment only by companies licensed to grow or sell pot. It does not include analysis of the businesses that support the licensed pot industry, like the attorneys advising businesses or packaging companies selling the jars that pot is sold in.
The detailed report provides a number of insights into the industry:
