Pharmacist Job Overview

Pharmacists are experts in medicine. In a pharmacist job, you’ll fill prescriptions, customize mixed medicines, help doctors decide which medications to use, keep patients from taking multiple drugs that interact badly and educate consumers about how to use medications safely.

Pharmacist Job Types

Pharmacist jobs are found in a variety of settings:

• Retail pharmacists work in stores, where they may also handle business tasks.
• Clinical pharmacists work in hospitals or other types of healthcare facilities where they help care for patients.
• Consultant pharmacists work for healthcare and insurance organizations where they try to increase efficiency and assist clients who use medicine to manage chronic illness or disease.
• Pharmacy professors work in postsecondary schools to prepare the next generation for pharmacist careers.

In addition, pharmacists working for themselves are small-business owners who have to market their pharmacy and manage employees and suppliers to be profitable.

Pharmacist Education and Licensure

Pharmacists must hold a PharmD degree, which typically takes four years to complete. All states require pharmacists to be licensed.

Pharmacist Job Market

Pharmacist job opportunities will rise 25 percent from 2010 to 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports. That’s faster than the average for all jobs. The reason for that growth is that the aging Baby Boom generation will increasingly need medications at the same time that many pharmacists will be retiring. More demand for medication coupled with fewer pharmacists means pharmacist employment will be relatively easy to find.

The number of pharmacist jobs is expected to rise in doctors' offices, outpatient healthcare centers and elder-care facilities, the BLS says.

Pharmacist jobs are not evenly distributed around the country. States with the highest populations of older people have the greatest demand for pharmacists.

About one in five pharmacists works part time and more than a third are older than 55.

Pharmacist Salaries

The BLS says the average pharmacist salary was $112,160 in 2011, but pharmacist pay varies somewhat by setting:

• General merchandise stores: $118,630
• Physicians’ offices: $117,750
• Outpatient care centers: $117,510
• Health and personal-care stores: $114,040
• General medical and surgical hospitals: $110,810
• Department stores: $109,240
• Grocery stores: $108,890