The average hourly wage for cannabis-related jobs in Canada is $29.58 — or $2.55 higher than the national average.
According to Statistics Canada, employment in cannabis-related jobs rose 266 per cent to an estimated figure of 10,400 in November 2018. The increase reflects Canada’s legalization of non-medicinal cannabis on Oct. 17, 2018. By comparison, cannabis-related industries employed 1,829 individuals in July 2017.
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Agriculture accounted for 58 per cent of cannabis-related jobs, with the rest spread across a number of industries, such as educational services, health care, and retail.
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Men fill nearly 8 out of 10 cannabis-related jobs (79 per cent) and the median age of workers in the industry is 35 — five years younger than workers in non-cannabis related jobs. Virtually all of the employees were working in permanent, full-time jobs, largely in the private sector.
More than half of all pot jobs — 5,700 — were in Ontario, the province with the largest concentration of licensed producers. Overall, the federal government has licensed about 120 producers.
These figures do not reflect official industry or occupation classification standards, and are not seasonally adjusted. They also do not capture cannabis-related jobs in unlicensed businesses.
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