How bad is the job market in your area?

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Just wondering how bad is the job market right now in your area? It would be helpful if you state where you are living and how hard it is to find a job.

Here in Orange County, it's extremely difficult to land a job. I've been looking for a per diem position for a while now (already full time status) and cannot land anything. Considering I already have 10 years clinical experiences under my belt...
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Pharmacists in Austin, Texas finally resorted to outright cannibalism this month.

I heard they've built a Mayan pyramid in Houston and are sacrificing P1s to Xeljanztecuhtli
 
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Portland, OR is abysmal, there are known unemployed new grads who are leaving the area for other jobs. Other parts of the state are still hiring though, so it isn't a big exodus.

Minneapolis-St. Paul is apocalyptic in that there are few jobs around, even in the outer areas. Most are taking anything that they can get. Even retail is difficult and the number of supervisors have shrunk.

DC still is looking for pharmacists in the federal government, but it is a crap place to work.

I know some unhappy pharmacist mothers who would consider making an offering to Tlaloc if they had known how high the cost was to not work at all when having children (those who stayed part-time were and are fine, but those who completely left are more or less shut out from resuming even part time employment).
 
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Pretty bad as in extremely competitive as new pharms with residencies are trying to get into hospitals while current pharms in retail are trying to make the jump to hospitals.
There are new retail pharmacies always popping up and sucker in new grads desperate for jobs but after a few years, they get burnt out and want to jump to hospitals.
 
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I can only speak for inpatient employment, but I still see openings posted on Indeed for the major SoCal markets. Of course we have a plethora of residents who will get interviews over new grads/retail transplants.

Our hospital is considering removing our per diem positions since we have a system float pool.
 
lord999 said:
Portland, OR is abysmal, there are known unemployed new grads who are leaving the area for other jobs. Other parts of the state are still hiring though, so it isn't a big exodus.

Minneapolis-St. Paul is apocalyptic in that there are few jobs around, even in the outer areas. Most are taking anything that they can get. Even retail is difficult and the number of supervisors have shrunk.

DC still is looking for pharmacists in the federal government, but it is a crap place to work.

I know some unhappy pharmacist mothers who would consider making an offering to Tlaloc if they had known how high the cost was to not work at all when having children (those who stayed part-time were and are fine, but those who completely left are more or less shut out from resuming even part time employment).
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I've heard this about the DC area, why is that?
 
lord999 said:
Portland, OR is abysmal, there are known unemployed new grads who are leaving the area for other jobs. Other parts of the state are still hiring though, so it isn't a big exodus.

Minneapolis-St. Paul is apocalyptic in that there are few jobs around, even in the outer areas. Most are taking anything that they can get. Even retail is difficult and the number of supervisors have shrunk.

DC still is looking for pharmacists in the federal government, but it is a crap place to work.

I know some unhappy pharmacist mothers who would consider making an offering to Tlaloc if they had known how high the cost was to not work at all when having children (those who stayed part-time were and are fine, but those who completely left are more or less shut out from resuming even part time employment).
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I know of one really excellent pharmacist who moved to Oregon for residency
 
Bay Area has a ton of jobs, but only if you have residency will you gain an interview and job position (inpatient wise), and 3 of my friends from MA got full time retail offers in NorCal. Central Valley has a deficit of pharmacists still. Don't know about SoCal too much, but 7 of my friends got full time retail offers in SoCal and theyre from MA near Riverside, Pomona, Fullerton area.

Basically, some of my friends moved from one side to the other side.


... I'm all inpatient, so I don't know much retail wise. Sorrryyy. ):
But, majority of west coast is impossible to get inpatient without residency now.
 
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Hasn't been too bad in my area from what I gathered. Seem's to be similar to when I graduated 4 years ago.
 
6GodPharm said:
I've heard this about the DC area, why is that?
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Among other things, pay is in the low 10%, the bureaucracy is high, the supervision flexibility is low, and coverups are common. I would never be a dispensing pharmacist in any of the federal centers within the District.
 
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Rural areas like mine have lots of turnover as a whole, but just like any other area, if there's no openings then theres no openings. Mine hasn't had any openings for a while as jobs have been all filled by new grads or rural lifers.
 
NYC/Long Island pharmacist job market is appalling.
 
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When you say land a job as in you went to an interview and got passed up or you submitted a resume and got nothing?

First and foremost, try rxrelief.com, they will hire anyone that can speak english and has some sort of experience but the pay and locations would probably not be desirable.

You can hit up craigslist.
orange co jobs "pharmacist" - craigslist

Third, go to facebook and keep adding all the suggested friends till you have 1000 friends, and post on facebook that your dog has cancer and you need a per diem job to pay for the treatment.
 
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My hospital just expanded and are hiring several new clinical, staff, and manager pharmacists. My coresidents who aren't looking to stay have struggled to find jobs in larger markets. Stay in residency guys, once you finish PGY4 you'll be getting interviews left and right :rolleyes:
 
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tri-state area here....it's rough....stay away from NJ/PA area plz.
 
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I'm seriously thinking about buying a cheap house and running subutex/suboxone. My area is ripe with this and I could make it with just myself and a handful of scripts.
 
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VA77 said:
I'm seriously thinking about buying a cheap house and running subutex/suboxone. My area is ripe with this and I could make it with just myself and a handful of scripts.
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Can I be your Huell?
 
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San Francisco Bay Area - very difficult finding qualified pharmacists to fill positions. Kaiser just finished a hiring spree in the area this past spring (IP and OP), and I believe most of their residents have committed to positions after they complete. Specialist positions are a bit harder to fill vs. generalist as we have a huge cohort of PGY-1 graduates coming on board over the next month or so.

I had been trying to recruit for a transitions of care pharmacist for the past year and couldn't freaking find anyone. We ended up training some inpatient pharmacists as a stop-gap but we finally found someone that's on boarding next month.

C'mon people....the COL in the Bay Area isn't that. I promise we'll make it up to you in compensation!
 
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pharmasaurusRex17 said:
Bay Area has a ton of jobs, but only if you have residency will you gain an interview and job position (inpatient wise), and 3 of my friends from MA got full time retail offers in NorCal. Central Valley has a deficit of pharmacists still. Don't know about SoCal too much, but 7 of my friends got full time retail offers in SoCal and theyre from MA near Riverside, Pomona, Fullerton area.

Basically, some of my friends moved from one side to the other side.


... I'm all inpatient, so I don't know much retail wise. Sorrryyy. ):
But, majority of west coast is impossible to get inpatient without residency now.
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Didn't see this before I replied, yep that sounds about right. So-Cal is a tight market, but if you know people, it makes it easier. For some bizarre reason, there was a glut of inpatient positions in San Diego around the December/January mark (staff, clinical coord, management, you name it).

But So-Cal is probably a "live in OC, commute to IE" deal.
 
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I'm stuck at CVS near Boston and one of the techs went to a hospital outpatient pharmacy. He says anytime a rph job is posted there, they get about 400 applicants.
 
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mentos said:
I'm stuck at CVS near Boston and one of the techs went to a hospital outpatient pharmacy. He says anytime a rph job is posted there, they get about 400 applicants.
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This is exactly what the older pharmacist I spoke to mentioned to me. He was saying that he didn't even look through the rest of the applications he got, said he had around 500 lol...


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samven582 said:
NYC/Long Island pharmacist job market is appalling.
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AHossain said:
I hear there are literally no jobs at all in these areas, and it's been like that for a few years now... =\
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Lnsean said:
tri-state area here....it's rough....stay away from NJ/PA area plz.
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I had to apply to 157 jobs over a span of 195 days before I had a full-time job offer in hand. Only had 8 interviews (phone + in person) evenly spaced out during my search. My MBA instantly paid for itself since you don't even need to be an RPh to be in the job I landed in April 2016. The NYC/Long Island job market for pharmacists is abominable.
 
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confettiflyer said:
San Francisco Bay Area - very difficult finding qualified pharmacists to fill positions. Kaiser just finished a hiring spree in the area this past spring (IP and OP), and I believe most of their residents have committed to positions after they complete. Specialist positions are a bit harder to fill vs. generalist as we have a huge cohort of PGY-1 graduates coming on board over the next month or so.

I had been trying to recruit for a transitions of care pharmacist for the past year and couldn't freaking find anyone. We ended up training some inpatient pharmacists as a stop-gap but we finally found someone that's on boarding next month.

C'mon people....the COL in the Bay Area isn't that. I promise we'll make it up to you in compensation!
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Woooo my residency is strong in the am care transitions of care dept haha but we also have a strong acute care side too :). But yes your post is absolutely correct.

Better have connections, or a residency or fellowship if you wanna be in California unfortunately.
 
pharmasaurusRex17 said:
Woooo my residency is strong in the am care transitions of care dept haha but we also have a strong acute care side too :). But yes your post is absolutely correct.

Better have connections, or a residency or fellowship if you wanna be in California unfortunately.
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Unless you want to work in Jefferson, but since they want to be their own state, I'm hesitant to call it California.

Actually, f*&k those secessionists, they're still California!

I think anything north of Clear Lake, Ukiah, and Chico would be balanced in terms of market. Experience wins the day, though. I think unproven new grads without inpatient experience to jump off from are the most screwed regardless of market.
 
confettiflyer said:
We ended up training some inpatient pharmacists as a stop-gap but we finally found someone that's on boarding next month.

C'mon people....the COL in the Bay Area isn't that. I promise we'll make it up to you in compensation!
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This sounds like you're a prisoner of your own device. Why not promote one of the inpatient pharmacists you have already trained and then fill their position with a PGY1 grad?
 
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confettiflyer said:
Unless you want to work in Jefferson, but since they want to be their own state, I'm hesitant to call it California.

Actually, f*&k those secessionists, they're still California!

I think anything north of Clear Lake, Ukiah, and Chico would be balanced in terms of market. Experience wins the day, though. I think unproven new grads without inpatient experience to jump off from are the most screwed regardless of market.
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LOL. Them crazies. Unfortunately right now Im in Trumplandia and its really fascinating what the true America looks like. When people tell me that Americans are fat, I didnt quite see it since the metropolises dont show it very well. Move out a bit and now I believe it. :/ Its really sad.

But anyway off topic, ... PGY1s are now becoming the norm with those who have PGY2s in the right fields finding jobs really easily. Theres a deficit of specialists in certain specialties from all the job postings I see and from my friends who are hiring but protocol will not let them hire any lower.
 
CetiAlphaFive said:
Pharmacists in Austin, Texas finally resorted to outright cannibalism this month.

I heard they've built a Mayan pyramid in Houston and are sacrificing P1s to Xeljanztecuhtli
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Yeah I live in Houston and it is terrible out here. it is supersaturated.
However, Some part of west Texas are still hiring. One of the pharmacy interns at my store that graduated this year got a retail offer that comes with a $30,000 sign on bonus to move to Tyler, Texas with at least a 2 years commitment, But the only catch is that they only guarantee you 32 hours per week. That is not to say that some week you won't work up to 40 hours if someone call in or they call you last minute to cover a shift.
 
ImmunoglobulinE said:
Yeah I live in Houston and it is terrible out here. it is supersaturated.
However, Some part of west Texas are still hiring. One of the pharmacy interns at my store that graduated this year got a retail offer that comes with a $30,000 sign on bonus to move to Tyler, Texas with at least a 2 years commitment, But the only catch is that they only guarantee you 32 hours per week. That is not to say that some week you won't work up to 40 hours if someone call in or they call you last minute to cover a shift.
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Hahaha, Target was *begging* me to move to Odessa back during the oil shale boom.

If I was single I woulda done it; the pay was fat.
 
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My graduate friend lives out in Long Island and she had apparently had to apply to a couple of hundred of jobs out there before even getting one part time position...I think it's safe to say it's pretty damn tight to non-existent around the east coast
 
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Job market in Dallas is great if you know people.
 
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BenJammin said:
Job market in Dallas is great if you know people.
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Anywhere hiring inpatient pharmacists currently? I know someone whose hospital recently shut down that is looking to stay in the area.
 
ImmunoglobulinE said:
Yeah I live in Houston and it is terrible out here. it is supersaturated.
However, Some part of west Texas are still hiring. One of the pharmacy interns at my store that graduated this year got a retail offer that comes with a $30,000 sign on bonus to move to Tyler, Texas with at least a 2 years commitment, But the only catch is that they only guarantee you 32 hours per week. That is not to say that some week you won't work up to 40 hours if someone call in or they call you last minute to cover a shift.
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I was about 48 hours away from signing on with CVS in Tyler, TX until I got an offer for the Philadelphia market instead. Tyler isn't a bad place. 100,000+ people. Low crime, cheap houses. Not far outside of Dallas.
 
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confettiflyer said:
I think anything north of Clear Lake, Ukiah, and Chico would be balanced in terms of market. Experience wins the day, though. I think unproven new grads without inpatient experience to jump off from are the most screwed regardless of market.
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Even the hospitals in these areas (and Central California) won't even look at your resume unless if you already have hospital experience.

Even as early as last year, some of the chains have been rumored to have had a hard time filling positions in the SF Bay Area. Now floaters are having a hard time getting hours due to the onslaught of 2016 grads.
 
Live in a medium-sized city in GA. There are no jobs aside from a single CVS position in the ghetto that they can't manage to fill. The last pharmacist who held the job had previous retail experience and they quit after 2 days. Last I've heard, graduates of the c/o 2017 are applying to positions in rural MS and LA because there's nothing left in most GA cities aside from a random CVS position here and there.
 
I saw this thread because of an user from the prepharm forum warning others about the job market. I noticed that there are some serious deniers out there who think he is trying to discourage them some way. I'm asking you guys, in all honesty please...is the job market really that bad? And why are there so many people on the prepharm sub forum who don't seem to believe it?


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My colleagues are currently in the New York area and are having quite a bit of trouble to find part time positions. Two are currently floating and they graduated a year ago.
 
Nothing in Illinois , unless you are a specialist .


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AHossain said:
I saw this thread because of an user from the prepharm forum warning others about the job market. I noticed that there are some serious deniers out there who think he is trying to discourage them some way. I'm asking you guys, in all honesty please...is the job market really that bad? And why are there so many people on the prepharm sub forum who don't seem to believe it?


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They are in denial. If they want to work in a small town or rural area, they are golden. If they want to work in a major city, it will be a difficult, uphill battle. This is just a fact.
 
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AHossain said:
I saw this thread because of an user from the prepharm forum warning others about the job market. I noticed that there are some serious deniers out there who think he is trying to discourage them some way. I'm asking you guys, in all honesty please...is the job market really that bad? And why are there so many people on the prepharm sub forum who don't seem to believe it?


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Click to expand...

On a more philosophical level it could be because the grass is always greener on the other side, or because compared to the general population pharmacy is still a good field, or possibly it is cognitive dissonance (my new favorite explanation for most lines of illogical thinking).

I don't think the job market is *that* bad. But it certainly isn't the golden days anymore, that is for sure. You might have to movie for a job or you might have to overtrain for one. It sucks, but it is what it is.
 
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I'm looking in the NE and applied to at least 30 positions in the last 6 months. With my PGY2 training, my most promising lead right now is a staff/order verification pharmacist position. :-(

At this rate, I hope I'll be qualified to count pills by the end of my career when some new grad with PGY10 training replaces me.
 
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John Detter said:
I'm looking in the NE and applied to at least 30 positions in the last 6 months. With my PGY2 training, my most promising lead right now is a staff/order verification pharmacist position. :-(

At this rate, I hope I'll be qualified to count pills by the end of my career when some new grad with PGY10 training replaces me.
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Damn...I'm sorry :( . I hope you find something soon.


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