Marijuana Industry Will Make More Jobs Than Manufacturing in 2020 -- How Will This Happen?

Despite what people say about the dangers and benefits of marijuana, perhaps cannabis will save employment. New projections say that the marijuana industry may, in fact, make more jobs than manufacturing as early as 2020.

According to a report from New Frontier Data, projection states that the cannabis industry can provide more than 250,000 jobs in less than three years. By 2024, manufacturing jobs may decline as high as 814,000, along with utilities (losing about 47,000) and government jobs (losing about 383,000).

However, the data does not solely indicate that this is beneficial to marijuana alone. It seems projections favor the health industry in general.

The industry itself is worth an estimated $7.2 billion in 2016 and was projected to grow at about 17 percent. Digging deeper, medical marijuana sales may even grow thrice in a few years -- from $4.7 billion in 2016 to $13.3 billion as early as 2020.

Giadha Aguirre De Carcer, the founder and CEO of New Frontier Data, said the numbers confirm that marijuana is indeed on its way to being a major livelihood provider in the future.

While the U.S., in general, may see a drop in economic growth, the cannabis industry may still make a rise in a few years, which is still indicative of "good" development for the U.S. economy.

According to Forbes, the statistics are solely based on the markets that have legalized the production and selling of marijuana. They did not take into account if other states would join in the cannabis fad by 2020. There are currently 25 states that have some form of procedure about legalizing marijuana.

The market currently employs about 100,000 to 150,000 workers and have about 90,000 workers in plant-touching companies.

Of course much as the prospects are good for marijuana, those are still afraid to pursue it as it can be used as a reason to be prosecuted by the DEA. This is despite the fact that federal government may not prosecute people who are in the industry and still follow sate mandates.