Career Opportunities in the United States

The Pharmacy Manpower Project issued a report in 2002 predicting an estimated 417,000 pharmacists will be required in 2020, with approximately 260,000 supplied by US pharmacy schools, or an expected shortfall of 157,000 pharmacists.

The shortage of pharmacists in the United States is expected to worsen further with the recent implementation of the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, otherwise known as the MMA or Medicate Part D in January 2006, as more and more services will be required from pharmacists.

USA Today published an article in August 2005, examining the nationwide pharmacist shortage (USA), which is most severe in high-growth states -- such as California, Florida and North Carolina -- and in more rural states -- such as Missouri, Maine and West Virginia.

While there has been an increase both in the number of schools offering pharmacy courses (from 72 in 1985 to 92 in 2005) and in the number of people studying pharmacy because of the shortage and high salary of pharmacists, the projected number of graduates is still not enough to satisfy the growing demand.

There has been fierce competition from drugstore chains, independent drugstores, hospitals, mass retailers, insurers and nursing homes to hire pharmacists to fill prescriptions in anticipation of the increased volume of prescriptions to be filled. Even those pharmacy students who have yet to graduate have been receiving multiple offers from various companies offering signing bonuses, tuition reimbursement and relocation expenses. Pharmacies nationwide have raised salaries by 4.9% on average since last year, bringing the average salary for a chain drugstore pharmacist to $92,542 (USA Today, 8/17).

The United States Congress-mandated study conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services, “The Pharmacist Workforce: A Study of the Supply and Demand for Pharmacists”, first confirmed that there is a shortage of pharmacists in 1998-2000, and that the number of vacancies reached nearly 7,000 in Feb 2000.

Potential solutions to pharmacist shortage, as mentioned in the study, include Increasing the number of pharmacy technicians with suitable training, increasing the enrollment in schools & colleges of pharmacy, greater reciprocity among States and greater use of foreign-trained graduates.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 230,000 pharmacists were employed in 2002, and 25,000 more will be needed by 2012. Moreover, the report states that “very are expected for pharmacists over the 2000-12 period”