For the first time since state recreational marijuana markets launched in 2014, the industry saw a year-over-year decline in national revenue from cannabis sales in 2025, according to a new economic report. But that trend could soon reverse as state laws evolve, businesses adapt and federal rescheduling potentially creates new opportunities.
In 2025, however, the U.S. Cannabis Jobs Report from Vangst and Whitney Economics found that the market contracted—with $29.1 billion in marijuana sales nationally, a lower total than the prior year even as more states enacted legalization. As the industry has maturated, price compression drove down wholesale prices, while oversupply persisted.
That might have been welcome news for consumers who generally had to spend less on cannabis, but it put a “squeeze on operators absorbing rising costs for fuel, utilities and services,” the analysis found.
“In-store checkout data indicates that the number of items in a consumer’s basket, in most states, remained about the same or slightly increased over the past year,” the report says. “At the same time the transaction value—the total cost of goods in the basket—remained steady or decreased.”
Meanwhile, cannabis sector jobs declined modestly by 2.7 percent last year, according to the report. But as
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