Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · Holland code ISC

Pharmacists

Dispense drugs prescribed by physicians and other health practitioners and provide information to patients about medications and their use. May advise physicians and other health practitioners on the selection, dosage, interactions, and side effects of medications.

Also called: Clinical Pharmacist, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist (CPS), Hospital Pharmacist, Registered Pharmacist, Community Pharmacist, Inpatient Pharmacist, Pharm D (Pharmacy Doctor), Pharmacy Informaticist.

O*NET 29-1051.00

At a glance

US median annual pay: $140,910; Middle half earn $129,380 to $161,840. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Most common education: Doctoral Degree; 78% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
Preparation needed: Job Zone 5 of 5; Extensive preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.
US employment outlook, 2024 to 2034: +5% · Faster than average; 335,100 jobs in 2024, projected 350,500. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, which groups this with similar roles as "Pharmacists".

What the work involves

The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.

Review prescriptions to assure accuracy, to ascertain the needed ingredients, and to evaluate their suitability.
Collaborate with other health care professionals to plan, monitor, review, or evaluate the quality or effectiveness of drugs or drug regimens, providing advice on drug applications or characteristics.
Work in hospitals or clinics or for Health Management Organizations (HMOs), dispensing prescriptions, serving as a medical team consultant, or specializing in specific drug therapy areas, such as oncology or nuclear pharmacotherapy.
Provide information and advice regarding drug interactions, side effects, dosage, and proper medication storage.
Provide specialized services to help patients manage conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, smoking cessation, or high blood pressure.
Analyze prescribing trends to monitor patient compliance and to prevent excessive usage or harmful interactions.
Maintain records, such as pharmacy files, patient profiles, charge system files, inventories, control records for radioactive nuclei, or registries of poisons, narcotics, or controlled drugs.
Prepare sterile solutions or infusions for use in surgical procedures, emergency rooms, or patients' homes.

Skills and knowledge it leans on

Skills

Reading Comprehension4.0 / 5
Active Listening4.0 / 5
Speaking4.0 / 5
Writing3.9 / 5
Critical Thinking3.9 / 5
Monitoring3.9 / 5

Knowledge areas

Medicine and Dentistry4.6 / 5
English Language4.4 / 5
Biology4.4 / 5
Mathematics4.2 / 5
Chemistry4.1 / 5
Education and Training3.9 / 5

Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.

Who tends to enjoy it

How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.

Realistic30
Investigative78
Artistic8
Social65
Enterprising27
Conventional59

The same work abroad

Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.

European occupation titles (ESCO)

pharmacist · DE Apotheker/Apothekerin · FR pharmacien/pharmacienne
pharmaceutical quality specialist · DE Qualitätsprüfer Arzneimittel/Qualitätsprüferin Arzneimittel · FR pharmacien en pharmacovigilance/pharmacienne en pharmacovigilance
specialist pharmacist · DE Fachapotheker/Fachapothekerin · FR pharmacien spécialiste/pharmacienne spécialiste
hospital pharmacist · DE Krankenhausapotheker/Krankenhausapothekerin · FR pharmacien hospitalier/pharmacienne hospitalière
industrial pharmacist · DE Industrie-Pharmazeut/Industrie-Pharmazeutin · FR pharmacien dans l’industrie/pharmacienne dans l’industrie
pharmacy assistant · DE Pharmazeutisch-kaufmännischer Angestellter/Pharmazeutisch-kaufmännische Angestellte · FR pharmacien assistant/pharmacienne assistante

Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)

Pharmaceutical technicians (3212)23,700 employed
Vehicle and parts salespersons and advisers (7115)37,400 employed
Pharmacists (2251)80,400 employed

Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.

Japan

Japan classifies jobs in its own way. The closest category that names the same work is “薬剤師”, which may be narrower or broader than this occupation.

Median monthly pay: ¥356,600; Middle half earn ¥301,100 to ¥420,000 a month.
Workers in the category: 94,850; Regular employees in firms of ten or more.

Scheduled monthly pay before tax, excluding overtime and bonuses, so it is not comparable to the annual figures above. Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025, via e-Stat, under the Japanese Government Standard Terms of Use. The category match was made by hand.

Pay across Europe, for the whole group

Median annual earnings of all employees in “Professionals”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.

Median annual earnings, Professionals, by country
Country	Median pay
Belgium	€61,714
Germany	€59,529
Ireland	€56,877
Austria	€55,374
Netherlands	€53,595
Sweden	€43,567
France	€41,515
Spain	€35,735
Italy	€33,649
Portugal	€26,072
Poland	€14,380

Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.

Exposure to AI

This occupation sits in the middle third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of +0.61. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.

Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.

Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (29-1051).

Is it a fit for you?

Interest is one input, alongside ability, pay and what is hiring near you. The career interests test takes about thirteen minutes and ranks occupations by how closely their profile matches yours.

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