Which jobs do the most drug testing for weed?

According to a recent federal labor study, states have been phasing out marijuana bans, which has led to a significant drop in workplace drug testing rates over the past 25 years. The data also shows which industries are least and most likely to test workers for drugs.

BUREAU OF STATISTICS SURVEY

The corresponding report was released earlier this year by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). A small number of organizations were found to have suspended or postponed drug and alcohol testing for employees during the COVID-19 outbreak. The report is part of a project evaluating how companies are dealing with the pandemic. The Labor Force Tracing Organization does not appear to have surveyed companies about drug testing since 1996.

Since then, more than a third of US states have legalized cannabis for adult use, and about three-quarters of all states have legalized cannabis for medicinal use. According to the survey, states that have opted for legalization have lower drug testing prevalence overall.

Workers in safety-sensitive areas such as warehousing and transportation were more likely to be tested than workers in other areas such as education services, arts and hospitality, as could be predicted. A 1996 survey of all workplaces found that about 30% were tested for drugs and about 14% for alcohol. According to the latest study, 16.1% of respondents test for alcohol and drugs.

Over 80,000 establishments across the country have responded to the survey in a meaningful way (ie answering at least 5 of the 25 questions) and it has been distributed to approximately 317,000 establishments across the country. Unlike most previous BLS surveys, employers were asked to answer the questions online and without the interviewer present.

QUESTION OF SURVIVAL

Two of the survey questions addressed drug and alcohol testing. One inquired about drug testing for potential new hires or current staff, the other focused on whether testing had been scaled back or postponed since the pandemic began.

In a statement, BLS research economist Michael Dalton, who worked on the survey, said he was motivated to push for the inclusion of the drug screening questions for employers after reading media reports that some companies had stopped asking workers and applicants to test it easier to fill vacancies.

Dalton stated the conclusion from what he read was that there were few anecdotal stories. He added that they had no new data on drug testing, which hit a brick wall in part.

While the BLS survey showed evidence of an overall decrease in screens, this decrease was minimal, with just 2% of employers reporting eliminating or delaying testing, while 7.9% reported eliminating or delaying testing as well also to test new applications or existing employees.

The results, which are broken down by state, industry sector and company size, nevertheless shed light on the tactics of private employers across the country.

SUMMARY OF SURVEY

The study defines operations as distinct physical locations rather than commercial organizations, so for survey purposes a company with offices in two different states would represent two unique operations, each of which would need to submit a questionnaire.

Dalton expressed his expectation that the upcoming reports will allow analysis by company size overall. The researcher added that if we look at the average wage earned within the company, they also have estimates that aren’t publicly available yet.

One of the stronger correlations the survey found was that companies in states where cannabis is legal appeared less inclined to screen employees. The majority of states, eight out of ten, have passed legislation legalizing cannabis for adult use. However, none of the ten states with the highest testing rates have legalized cannabis.

Of course, it is difficult to derive causality from the available data. It is possible that legalization has led to a decrease in the number of employers who have chosen to conduct background checks, but it is also likely that employers’ underlying personal perceptions of individual freedom, privacy or the Drug use outside of work hours, for example, has helped spur the legalization of marijuana and comparatively low testing rates.

SURVEY RESULTS

Significant disparities between industry sectors have also been observed as a result of the ongoing federal ban on cannabis. Testing rates were significantly higher than average in the utilities sector and in the storage and transportation sectors. The only industry where more than half of the companies reported doing drug screening was the transportation and storage industry, which includes the state-regulated trucking sector and other businesses.

The industries with the lowest testing rates were financial activities, information, arts, entertainment and recreation, and lodging and hospitality services.

During the pandemic, more employers in the utilities industry reduced drug testing than any other industry, but that doesn’t mean they stopped doing it completely. The industry also had the largest percentage of companies that reduced or postponed testing while continuing to test potential hires or existing staff.

Smaller facilities required screenings much less frequently than larger ones. In companies with fewer than 20 employees, 12.9% of employees or workers were tested. 34.7% of companies with 20 to 100 employees did so. At sites with between 100 and 500 people, the proportions increased further (56.7%), as did at sites with more than 500 people (69.9%).

Drug testing declined during the epidemic, but Dalton claimed it was too early to say if the decline would continue afterwards. While many of the workplace changes caused by COVID may eventually disappear, he noted that other changes are unlikely to be fully reversed. For example, when BLS inquired about teleworking during the pandemic, about 20% of all companies said they have increased teleworking and expect these increases to continue later.

FINAL EFFECT

It found that industries that are not security sensitive had the lowest testing rates for cannabis. In contrast, security-sensitive industries performed more testing on their workers, particularly the warehousing and transportation industry, which saw the highest percentage of testing workers.

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