This article originally appeared onThe Fresh Toast
Finding jobs as a millennial isn't an easy proposition. With a workforce that requires experience for entry-level positions or accepting unpaid internships, most millennials struggle with acquiring work. But one area has not only enticed millennials, but actively recruited them: the cannabis industry.
According the to the Philadelphia Inquirer, that is. The newspaper reported college graduates with agricultural degrees easily getting jobs in the medical marijuana industry. An institution like Delaware Valley University teaches their agricultural students a grow technique called hydroponics, a system that allows plants to grow without soil. Hydroponics is a popular technique within the cannabis industry and while teachers aren't instructing how to grow cannabis, they are receiving similar skills they can employ within the cannabis industry.
As one dean told the Inquirer, "I'll teach you how to grow a tomato, and if you can grow a tomato, you can grow cannabis."
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The ability to easily transfer such agricultural abilities gleaned at the university level into the cannabis industry has made these students desirable. In addition, the dean admitted student interest is growing as well.
And as the cannabis industry continues to expand, so too will the job market. Statista estimates the marijuana market will reach $37.3 billion in sales by 2024. That increased revenue will increase job opportunity, as companies will open new grow operations, which need more cultivators and processors to work.
As Bloomberg noted a few months ago, the worked conditions are also appealing to millennials and is driving them away from the restaurant business in places like Denver. Why would someone want to work in a stressful, sweaty workplace like a kitchen with awful hours when you could be around plants all day?
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"Our work force is being drained by the pot industry," a Denver restauranteur told Bloomberg. "There's a very small work pool as it is. Enter the weed business, which pays $22 an hour with full benefits. You can come work in a kitchen for us for eight hours a day, in a hot kitchen. It's a stressful life. Or you can go sort weed in a climate-controlled greenhouse. It's a pretty obvious choice."
This explains why one CEO of a commercial grower-processor cannabis operation told the Inquirer, "We're getting deluged with resumes."
So if you're a millennial who wants work, don't go west, young man. Go green.
This article originally appeared on The Fresh Toast: a lifestyle and entertainment platform with heaping sides of cannabis--you can read more, here.
