A cannabis business operating in Michigan said it would hire laid-off Burger King employees to roll marijuana joints for $16 an hour, although the job picture remains mixed in the cannabis sector depending on the state.
As Shryne Group Inc.’s Stiiizy cannabis business expands in Michigan, the company has offered to hire hundreds of Burger King employees that are being let go in Detroit and other parts of the state, Stiiizy managing partner Ryan Jundt said.
“We’re hiring like crazy,” Jundt said in an interview with radio station WWJ-AM. “From flipping burgers to rolling blunts and joints.”
Stiiizy managing partner Ryan Jundt
Shryne Group/Stiiizy
Stiiizy has offered to immediately hire 200 of the employees affected by the Burger King layoff for a processing facility in the state and for other potential jobs. It may potentially hire the remaining 200 people affected by the job action at Burger King locations in Michigan in the coming months as it grows in the state.
“You can move up very quickly at this company,” Jundt said.
Stiiizy said it would be offering a higher wage than Burger King, with benefits and opportunities for advancement. The company is soliciting resumes emailed to officemi@shrynegroup.com, with a request to include name, phone number, and email contact.
Founded in 2017 originally as a vape company, Stiiizy now employs about 2,800 people in California as the top cannabis employer with 36 licensed businesses there.
Stiiizy takes its name from a skateboarding term that combines the words “style” and “ease,” Jundt said. “We all grew up skateboarding,” Jundt said about many of his co-workers at Stiiizy.
While Stiiizy is hiring in Michigan, the industry overall now employs about 417,493 jobs, Weedar CEO Jonathan Bohun told MarketWatch in an email.
The industry did see a 2% drop in overall employment in the past year, as a 13% decrease in California cannabis jobs weighed on the sector, he said.
Nevertheless, some areas are seeing job growth including 4,220 jobs gained in New Jersey to total 7,367 positions, while Michigan has overtaken Colorado as the second-largest cannabis employer with 34,405 jobs, Bohun said.
“The cannabis industry is still going stronger than many others that have been hit by an economic downturn, and keeps offering job opportunities to those that have been affected by layoffs in other sectors,” Bohun said.
Another positive trend is potential price stabilization in wholesale cannabis prices, which has been taking place in California, he said.
As one of the largest U.S.-based cannabis companies, Curaleaf Holdings Inc. CURLF ended its 2023 with 5,500 employees, flat from the prior quarter, according to a company spokesperson.
Curaleaf took $225 million of non-cash goodwill impairments and inventory write-downs as it exited the mature markets of California, Colorado, and Oregon. But it also expanded in Florida, Connecticut, and Utah. During the fourth quarter, it opened 28 new locations in Arizona, Florida, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.