Reposted from The Financial Post.
The cannabis sector employed 243,700 people at the beginning of 2020, up 15 per cent from the prior year and nearly double the number of jobs in 2017.
Unlike many industries, the cannabis sector is still hiring during the pandemic. Yet the number of open positions has dwindled as layoffs become more common and many of the jobs that do exist are temporary.
Vangst, which runs the Gigs site for temporary pot jobs and recently launched a platform for full-time positions, is filling about 600 jobs a week. That’s a slight decrease from pre-COVID-19 levels earlier this year, mostly because companies are employing fewer in-store staff as they switch to delivery or curbside pickup. Meanwhile, the number of job candidates on the platform surged by 300 per cent between March and April, according to Karson Humiston, founder and chief executive officer of Vangst.
“We’ve seen a huge uptick in candidates, and we’re seeing a large number of candidates coming from hospitality and retail,” Humiston said in a phone interview. “When our clients do pick up hiring again, they’re going to have access to a really strong talent pool.”