The number of people I know who have nothing coming out of pharmacy school is increasing every year. And the number of people who can't seem to even find tech or intern work also seems to be increasing which should signal to students how bad the market is. The field is definitely oversaturated in my area though other areas may have more opportunities.
What worries me even more is not the availability of jobs but how long those jobs will last. I feel automation overall will render many job duties useless though when this is to be seen who knows. Also a lot of people were forced into early retirement 2008-2009. And with a constant stream of young grads with more energy and mental sharpness and high levels of debt, they are replacing older, middle aged pharmacists many who are parents with obligations besides college loans like mortgages, taxes, kids, retirement, etc. I can see age discrimination playing a much bigger role these days and not just limited to pharmacy. And these costs for many aren't going to go down and wages aren't picking up. This forum constantly talks about the lack of job stability in certain big retail companies (age discrimination, etc) so many will have to change their lifestyles and consume less. And how many people these days will stay with the same company for many many years? Just visualize that if you somehow miraculously end up with a real job, how many hundreds, thousands of hungry, starving younger pharmacy graduates are hovering behind you chomping at the bit ready to chew you and spit you out and take your place?
pharmstudent2019 - I entered pharmacy school when there were sign on bonuses and it was easy to find any job, go into the field you enjoy and live life a bit and it amazes me how fast the markets can change because now there are more and more grads I know who cannot find anything or have to relocate or settle for residencies which even then no longer promise those clinical pharmacist jobs. Looking at just the # of graduates set to graduate, ask yourself do we REALLY need that many pharmacists in the country? The answer is a vehement NO! Now you may say, "well pharmacy is changing, there will be new fields like infusion, specialty, managed care, industry, jobs that don't practice pharmacy per se but need a Pharm.D degree, oh and there's more people retiring, more people taking drugs, the baby boomers and Medicare spending will help grow more jobs, etc." And those are valid points but the rate of job growth hasn't kept up with the increasing # of grads, least in my area, and reimbursement is always going down. The world is always changing and can be unpredictable and full of surprises but at this moment, job outlook isn't good and general consensus is that it won't get better. But at least it's not as dreadful like other fields like law though that is always subject to change. I even hear engineers are having a tough time finding jobs unless it's outside of actual engineering like finance. So pharmacy is not an isolated field but a lot more can be said about the pharmacy job market getting worse and not better, and 2019 you will see more competition than I face with more schools graduating. And if you do manage to get a job, can you KEEP it? With ever mounting debt, stagnant wages, rising costs, etc and other issues like globalization, robots replacing people, climate change, the whole job/economic outlook doesn't look so good anymore.
