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June 9, 2022

Employment expert: When CT’s cannabis market matures, it could yield up to 20,000 jobs

PHOTO | YEHYUN KIM/CT MIRROR Staff members at Rocky Hill medical marijuana grow facility CTPharma trim dried cannabis flower.

As Connecticut moves toward recreational cannabis sales potentially by the end of the year, an employment expert says the industry will bring hundreds of well-paying jobs in the short term and potentially thousands long term as new and existing companies grow in the state.

David Belsky, CEO and Founder of FlowerHire, has been watching the legal cannabis industry expand since his business opened up shop five years ago. The California-based cannabis employment recruiting agency has 30 employees nationwide, with about half of them scattered along the East Coast as more states continue to legalize the plant.

The company specializes in executive-level job placements for positions like management, boards of directors, and other C-suite jobs. While Belsky and FlowerHire focus on executive hiring, the company’s sister business, CareerInCannabis.com, aims to help people secure hourly positions in the industry.

Belsky said cannabis offers good-paying jobs with benefits to the state, and retail stores and cultivation facilities could see the largest boom in new positions within Connecticut’s industry. He said Connecticut’s cannabis market, when it matures in several years, could support between 15,000 to 20,000 jobs.

“When the market transitions into adult-use, the areas that are the quick job creation ones are retail obviously, but cultivation is actually the biggest,” Belsky said. “Cultivation is the building block of any state's market with a lack of interstate commerce.”

Belsky said the infrastructure to support an adult-use market isn’t in place yet based on the size of Connecticut’s medical market, so as growers build out their facilities to make up for that, jobs will be established. This is where blue-collar employees are needed and can find their place in the industry.

“Those cannabis cultivation jobs are more akin to … light industrial positions. If you think about it, a cannabis cultivation facility in the Northeast is kind of like a weed factory,” Belsky said. “There's been a lot of effects of globalization in parts of the country where it's no longer economically viable to manufacture. But these cannabis businesses quickly revitalize those parts of town, those facilities and the demographics that need those jobs.”

Belsky said cannabis retailers vary significantly based on their size and the traffic the location generates. Existing medical facilities might have a smaller employee base, but could double in size when they convert to serve the recreational market. Getting “your foot in the door” early allows for fast mobility in a quickly-moving industry, he said, and these jobs often come with good hourly pay and benefits.

“I think we’re seeing the biggest retailers having 100 to 200 full-time staff, but I'd say the average is probably in that 30 to 50 range,” Belsky said.

FlowerHire has done executive-level placements in 20 states, including Connecticut, and about 750 total since his company began. The average salary for a FlowerHire placement is $140,000, Belsky said.

As Connecticut’s and New York’s legal cannabis markets get off the ground, Belsky said the company is eyeing an even greater East Coast presence. Massachusetts, which legalized cannabis just a few years ago, has had a head start picking up executive talent in the region.

“California, Michigan, Massachusetts and Florida are our top four state markets,” Belsky said.

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