Canadian job searches containing cannabis-related terms were already climbing in recent months. At the start of September, job searches including terms like “cannabis” and “budtender” accounted for 31 out of 10,000 total Canadian searches, and rose to 44 per 10,000 by October 10. However that increase turned out to be mild: one week later, the share had more than doubled to 90 searches per 10,000, including a 33% spike on October 17 itself.  

Cannabis-related searches have fallen back since legalization, but remain above their early-October levels. The hype might die down a bit more in the weeks to come, but with developments such as the roll-out of retail operations still ongoing, the sector continues to be one to watch.  

Methodology

To measure cannabis-related search activity, we calculated the share of total Indeed job seeker searches for positions in Canada that included one of five terms: cannabis, marijuana, dispensary, weed and budtender, measured daily through October 21.