The Cannabis Industry has successfully lowered the Unemployment Rate in Canada
Recent data states that the unemployment rate in Canada fell to one of its lowest levels last month. Surprisingly, the quickly rising legal cannabis industry in Canada played an essential role in this trend. And currently, there is the probability that the marijuana industry in Canada will keep growing as demand for legal marijuana maintains in power.
The most recent employment stats are based on data from November 2018, and Statistics Canada recently published these figures. The figures state that the rate of unemployment in Canada dropped by 0.2 percentage points in November.
As a result, the drop places the rate of unemployment at 5.6 percent across the board. Significantly, Statistics Canada stated that these numbers are the lowest it has been since employment data was first published back in 1976.
According to the report, the rate of employment rose in six Canadian provinces. Moreover, the report stated that jobs in the private sector showed the highest growth.
On the other hand, jobs in the public sector remained more or less the same. The number of self-employed also remained relatively unchanged.
Surprisingly, Statistics Canada specifically gave a measurable section of its report to the cannabis industry. When marijuana was made legal on October 17, the legal marijuana industry of the country has witnessed considerable growth.
According to Statistics Canada, there were a total of 10.400 cannabis related jobs in November.
That figure shows a tremendous increase from the numbers from 2017. More positively, there were about 7,500 more jobs related to weed in November 2018 in contrast to the employment in November 2017. That matches a 266 percent increase in just a single year.
Statistics Canada distributed the employment numbers of the marijuana industry according to the field, and along various specific demographic lines. Some of their significant discoveries involve:
• Fifty-eight percent of most jobs related to the cannabis industry was in the agriculture sector. The other 42 percent of cannabis-related jobs were across different sectors including educational services, healthcare, and retail.
• The workers average hourly wage in the legal marijuana industry was $29.58, about three dollars greater than the national average of $27.03 per hour.
• Last month, there were mostly male workers in the legal marijuana industry in contrast to females. Males occupied 79 percent of the jobs in the marijuana industry while females occupied the other 21 percent.
• The cannabis industry’s median age of employment was 35 years old. While the median age for other sectors is 40 years, Ontario accounted for the most weed-related jobs, with somewhere around 5,700 jobs in November.
Currently, it seems that most of this growth is due to the response to the high demand for legal weed. When marijuana was legalized in October, many people stood in front of shops to buy pot.
Interestingly, dispensaries and wholesalers in Canada were short of stock. Most dispensaries could not restock in time.
Initial demand for legal weed rose to the level that most experts forecast that it could take several months before the supply of legal marijuana and marijuana products can meet up with demand.
