Help wanted in Michigan’s projected billion-dollar-plus marijuana industry

Within two hours on a day following record snowfall in Michigan, a career fair seeking up to 100 employees for a proposed marijuana grow facility in Pontiac ran out of its 300 applications.

A waiting list was created for the jobs that pay between $15 and $18 per hour with benefits kicking in after a 60-day probationary period.

As Michigan’s projected $1 billion-plus-per-year recreational marijuana industry closes in quickly on reality, businesses, investors and future employees are making their moves. The state Marijuana Regulatory Agency began accepting recreational marijuana business applications on Nov. 1. The first licenses are expected to be issued within weeks and recreational marijuana could commence by March or April of next year.

Scenes like these, a barrage of job seekers descending on career fairs with aspirations of breaking into the legal marijuana industry, are becoming routine.

Lansing-area’s Green Peak Innovations, a major player in Michigan’s medical marijuana industry that is licensed to grow 18,000 plants and operate five dispensaries, as well as a processing facility, held a career fair of its own in the Lansing Hyatt Place hotel on Nov. 7. [Read more MLive.com]