September 2001
One outcome of our state’s shortage of health care workers has been the need for more information about the current supply
of and demand for different professionals. For that reason, this pharmacist workforce profile was created to provide
Minnesota policy makers, employers, educators, consumers, and others with an overview of current information.
Pharmacist
Workforce
Profile
Major Findings
< Demand for pharmacists in Minnesota is strong — 246 actual (330 estimated) vacant fulland part-time positions at licensed pharmacies, 32 percent increase in real wages (1990 to
2000), 30 percent growth in employment (1986 to 1999), and 11 percent projected growth in
employment by 2008.
< Rural pharmacies had a higher vacancy rate for pharmacists and faced greater hiring
difficulties than those located in urban areas and may be forced to shifting to a part-time
workforce to meet the demand for services.
< The number of pharmacist graduates from regional schools, including the University of Minnesota, may not be
keeping pace with employers’ demand for workers. During the 1990s, an average of almost 80 pharmacists graduated
annually from the University of Minnesota.
< South Dakota State University and North Dakota State
University have had a greater impact than the University
of Minnesota on the supply of pharmacists in the
southwestern, western and northwestern parts of the state.
< According to the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy,
approximately 4,600 licensed pharmacists were
employed at practice sites in Minnesota in 2001. The
majority, six out of ten pharmacists, works in a retail
setting.
< Well over half of the state’s pharmacists started a new
position in the last three years. This finding further
reinforces the view that a tight labor market for
pharmacists is currently creating incentives and
opportunities for more pharmacists to change jobs.
< At present, one half of all active pharmacists are over the
age of 45. On average, rural pharmacists are almost four
years older than their urban counterparts.
< In recent years, more women than men have become
pharmacists. Female pharmacists comprise two-thirds of
pharmacists below the age of 40 and are more likely to
work part-time than male pharmacists.
< When compared to the urban pharmacy workforce, the
pharmacist workforce in rural Minnesota counties tends
to be older, composed mostly of males, and employed in
more part-time positions.
Minnesota Pharmacist Workforce At A Glance
Employment and Demographics
All Licensed Pharmacists
Location
Urban
Rural
Employment Site
Retail
Hospital
All Other Sites
Employed at a Licensed Pharmacy
Employed Full-time
Average Age
Over 50 Years Old
Gender
Female
Male
Trained in Minnesota
Pharmacist Vacancies
4,895
71.2%
28.8%
60.4%
20.3%
19.3%
85.6%
69.8%
44.8
32.8%
44.1%
55.9%
52.0%
Vacancies
246
330
62.2%
37.8%
59.0%
22.9%
9.7%
7.0%
2.2%
Location**
Position Type**
Actual
Estimated*
Urban
Rura l
Retail
Hospital
Other
Clinical
Pharmaceutical Care
* Calculation that includes survey non-respondents. ** Based on Actual
Vacancies. Sources: Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, 2001; Minnesota
Pharmacy Vacancy Survey, Office of Rural Health and Primary Care,
MDH, 2001.
Minnesota Pharmacist Workforce Profile, Page 1
Most licensed pharmacists dispense drugs and medicines
prescribed by medical and dental practitioners. To do
this, they must understand the use, composition,
interactions and effects of drugs. In addition to
dispensing drugs, pharmacists often advise consumers,
doctors, and other health practitioners on the selection
and effects of drugs. Their professional duties may also
include maintaining patient medication profiles, buying
and selling non-pharmaceutical supplies, and hiring and
supervising personnel.
A smaller proportion of pharmacists does not dispense
prescriptions, but are still licensed to practice as
pharmacists. These pharmacists often work for
insurance providers, conduct research for medical and
pharmaceutical companies, teach in universities or work
as regulators in state and federal government.
In 1999, there were an estimated 226,000 pharmacists
employed nationally and 3,800 employed in Minnesota.1
An analysis of past, current and future trends in
Minnesota suggests that the supply of available
pharmacists may not adequately meet the current and
future demands of employers and consumers.
Information on the major data sets used to construct this
profile can be found on page 10.
year. Of the employers responding to the survey, 38
percent indicated that they had successfully filled a new
or existing pharmacist vacancy in the past twelve months.
Licensed pharmacies reported a total of 555 positions
being added — 63.4 percent were for full-time posit ions.
Nine percent of those employers who had a vacant
pharmacist position also reported successfully filling
vacancies during the past year. When an estimate for
licensed pharmacies that did not respond to the survey
(23 percent) is included, the number of actual and
estimated positions added in the past year increases to a
total of 746.
Both rural and urban pharmacies “added” roughly 18
percent of their total workforce between May 2000 and
May 2001, with rural pharmacies, on average, adding
slightly more part-time staff than pharmacies located in
urban counties.4 Some regions of the state added
pharmacists at a higher than average rate, namely the
Twin Cities and Central, South, Southeast and Southwest
regions of the state.
Current Pharmacist Vacancies
Occupational Trends and Employer Needs
With regard to employer demand for pharmacists, results
from the survey reveal that there were 2465 actual vacant
pharmacist positions in the state during the summer of
2001. 6 Employers reported actively seeking to fill almost
all (93 percent) of these positions. When an estimate for
licensed pharmacies that did not respond to the survey
(20 percent) is included, the number of actual and
estimated vacancies increases to a total of 330 vacant
positions. 7 While this accurately estimates the demand
for pharmacists at the state’s 1,140 licensed facilities, it
does not capture the number of pharmacist vacancies in
the more than 230 unlicensed firms (e.g., Express Scripts)
that employ over 600 pharmacists in Minnesota. The
exclusion of these unlicensed firms from the survey
strongly suggests that the total number of current
pharmacist vacancies may be even larger.
One of the strongest indicators of the demand for an
occupation is wage growth. During the 1990s the median
hourly wage for a pharmacist in Minnesota increased
from $19.35 in 1990 to $33.29 in 2000 — a 32 percent
increase in real wages.2 In addition, pharmacist
employment in the state grew by 30 percent over the last
thirteen years (1986 to 1999) and is expected to increase
by another 11 percent by 2008. 3
Of the licensed pharmacies that responded to the survey,
only 21 percent reported a vacant pharmacist position.
On average, Twin Cities licensed pharmacies reported
slightly more vacancies than those located in Greater
Minnesota. Of the 246 total vacancies, employers
reported 122 full-time vacant positions and 124 part-time
vacant positions.
The Demand for Pharmacists
When estimating the demand for pharmacists, it is
important to consider two types of related information:
(1) information on occupational trends and employer
needs and (2) industry and societal trends that can shape
the current and future demand for pharmacists and the
services they provide.
With regard to employer demand for pharmacists, results
from the recently completed survey of all licensed
pharmacies in the state (Minnesota Licensed Pharmacy
Vacancy Survey, August 2001), reveal (1) how many
pharmacists were added over the past year and (2) how
many vacancies currently exist.
In the survey, employers were asked to identify how
many pharmacists were successfully recruited in the past
Overall, the vacancy rate (vacancies divided by an
estimate of current employment plus vacancies) for
pharmacists was 7.4 percent. The vacancy rate for parttime openings (9.8 percent) was higher than the rate for
full-time openings (5.9 percent). Even though urban
pharmacies had more vacancies than those in rural areas
(152 versus 93), licensed pharmacies in rural areas had a
slightly higher vacancy rate than urban areas (8.0 percent
Minnesota Pharmacist Workforce Profile, Page 2
versus 7.1 percent). Parts of the state that had higher than
average vacancy rates include the Northeast (8.3 percent),
Southeast (9.8 percent), and South Central (10.7 percent)
and Central Southwest (10.9 percent) regions of the state.
With regard to the type of pharmacist opening, employers
reported that almost sixty percent of vacant positions
were for retail pharmacist positions. Six of every ten
retail vacancies were for part-time pharmacists. Vacant
hospital positions had the second highest number of
openings with 52 vacancies (23 percent of total
vacancies). See Figure 1.
Figure 1: Current Pharmacist Vacancies
by Position Type
Pharmaceutical
Care
2%
Clinical
7%
Other
10%
Hospital
23%
Retail
58%
greater hiring difficulties and may be forced to shift to a
less expensive, part-time workforce to meet the demand
for services.
When replacement and new positions are examined as a
share of regional vacancy rates an interesting pattern
emerges. Most regions, especially those with the highest
vacancy rates, were seeking pharmacists to fill
replacement positions. Some regions — South Central,
Central Southwest, Northeast and North — had higher
vacancy rates than the state average (7.4 percent) due to
pharmacist departures. This finding suggests that
pharmacies in these regions seem to be experiencing
higher turnover in their staff and, perhaps, are having
greater difficulty retaining and finding replacements. See
Figure 2. In only three regions — Southeast, Northeast
and East Central — do the number of new positions
outnumber replacement vacancies. This finding suggests
that, at least in three regions, pharmacies may need
additional staff to meet the increasing demand for
services.
Figure 2: Pharmacist Vacancies as a Share of
Current Pharmacist Employment by Position
Type and Region
South Central
Source: Minnesota Pharmacy Vacancy Survey, ORHPC, MDH, 2001.
Central Southwest
Northeast
North
Central
Slightly over sixty percent of all pharmacist vacancies
were the result of a pharmacist leaving an employer. Of
those vacancies, 84 percent were due to a pharmacist
departing in the last 12 months. On average, there were
more full-time than part-time pharmacists whose
departure created a vacancy. Vacancies that resulted
from the creation of a new position usually resulted in the
addition of a part-time position.
While the number of positions created by departures and
new positions differed only slightly between pharmacies
based in urban and rural parts of the state, there were
significant differences in the types of pharmacist
positions created. On average, more vacancies resulted
from the departure of a full-time pharmacist in rural
counties (67 percent) than urban counties (52 percent).
This difference is also visible for pharmacies located in
Greater Minnesota versus the Twin Cities region. At the
same time, more of the new positions being created
outside of the Twin Cities were for part-time pharmacists
than for full-time pharmacists. These findings, along
with other anecdotal evidence, seem to support the
widely held perception that rural pharmacies are facing
Southwest
Southeast
Twin Cities
North Central
Replacement Position
New Position
South
Northwest
West Central
East Central
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
Percent
Source: Minnesota Pharmacy Vacancy Survey, ORHPC, MDH, 2001.
Another indicator of the difficulty pharmacies currently
have finding pharmacists is how long it takes an
employer to fill a vacant position. In the survey
employers were asked: “On average, how long have you
been trying to fill vacant positions at this pharmacy?”
One quarter responded that they had been trying for less
than four months. Roughly half of all employers had
Minnesota Pharmacist Workforce Profile, Page 3
Percent of Pharmacies with Vacancies
been trying for less than six months. When examined for
rural and urban differences, the data reveal that
pharmacies in rural counties wait longer to fill vacancies.
In fact, almost half of all rural pharmacies with vacancies
have been trying to fill their positions for more than ten
months, compared to only 30 percent of pharmacies in
urban counties. See Figure 3.
Figure 3: Average Duration of Current
Pharmacist Openings by Geographic Location
Urban
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Rural
1-3
4-6
7-9
10-12
More
than 12
or
Ongoing
Months
Source: Minnesota Pharmacy Vacancy Survey, ORHPC, MDH, 2001.
The Supply of Pharmacists
While the demand for pharmacists continues to be strong,
the supply of pharmacists has remained relatively
constant. When estimating the supply of pharmacists, it
is important to consider two types of information: the
number of graduates from post-secondary institutions and
the composition of the current workforce.
Pharmacist Graduation and Licensing Trends
Similar to other health care occupations, pharmacists
have well-defined educational and professional licensing
requirements. In 2000, there were 82 colleges and
schools of pharmacy with accredited baccalaureate and
doctoral degree granting programs in the United States,
including the College of Pharmacy at the University of
Minnesota. By 2005, all accredited degree programs will
only offer doctoral pharmacy degrees. In Minnesota, a
baccalaureate or doctorate of pharmacy currently fulfills
the requirement for licensure examination.
When analyzing this information it is important to
remember that newly graduated pharmacists do not
account for the entire supply of workers who could fill
vacant positions. Still, an analysis of recent graduation
trends does provide one estimate of pharmacy program
capacity and the new supply of pharmacists.
Industry and Societal Trends
In addition to the increase in the volume of prescriptions
and competition between pharmacies, the demand for
pharmacy services will also be shaped by significant
demographic changes in the state and nation. As the state
population ages — the proportion of the population that
is 65 and older will grow from 16 percent to 24 percent
by 2025 — the demand for pharmacy services will also
increase. On average, the number of medications
prescribed to an individual increases as they age.
Eight out of every ten licensed active pharmacists
working in Minnesota graduated from one of three
schools — the University of Minnesota, North Dakota
State University and South Dakota State University. See
Figure 4. Roughly half of all pharmacists working in the
state graduated from the University of Minnesota.
Graduation trends at these three schools during the last
four years reveal that the number of individuals
Figure 4: Top Five Pharmacist Workforce
Supply Schools, 2001
55%
Percent
It is important to remember that the demand for
pharmacists has and will be affected by important
changes in the health care industry and sweeping
demographic changes. In particular, more comprehensive
insurance coverage, increased access to health care
services, direct marketing to consumers by
pharmaceutical companies, and the addition of new
medications have all contributed to the increased use of
prescription medications during the last decade.8
Increased competition between pharmacies for market
share, especially with the growth of mail order and
internet-based prescription services and the expanded
hours for many chain pharmacies, has also placed greater
demand on pharmacists.
50%
All Pharmacists
45%
All Pharmacists ages 35 and under
40%
All Pharmacists ages 55 and over
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
University of
Minnesota
North Dakota South Dakota
State University State University
Source: Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, 2001.
Minnesota Pharmacist Workforce Profile, Page 4
University of
WisconsinMadison
Drake
University
completing pharmacy programs has remained steady with
an average of 120 graduates annually. Overall, the
number of pharmacy graduates and the number of
applicants declined nationally during the 1990s.9
There are also regional differences with regard to where
graduates practice after school. For instance, a majority
of the practicing pharmacists in the eastern portion of
Minnesota, that includes the Twin Cities, graduated from
the University of Minnesota. However, in other regions
of the state, such as the southwest and northwest, the
proportion of graduates from the University of Minnesota
is much lower — 21 percent and 12 percent respectively.
In these regions, South Dakota State and North Dakota
State have had a greater impact on the production of the
pharmacist workforce. See Figure 5. Given these
regional differences, changes in the number of
pharmacists graduating from the University of Minnesota
and other regional workforce suppliers impact the total
number of pharmacists who were able to fill vacant
positions.
Pharmacist Employment
When examining the composition of the pharmacist
workforce, it is important to note the different ways to
estimate the total number of pharmacists. One approach
is to count how many licensed pharmacists work as
pharmacists. Through a survey of employers, the
Minnesota Department of Economic Security (MDES)
estimates that there were approximately 3,800
pharmacists employed in the state in 1999. Since MDES
bases its estimate on a list of job titles obtained from
employers, they likely omit those licensed pharmacists
with non-pharmacist job titles who were in pharmacy or
pharmacy-related positions.
The second approach is to count the number of
individuals who hold an active license. Using this
approach reveals that there are approximately 5,500
individuals who hold an active Minnesota pharmacist
license. According to the relicensing data collected by
the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, approximately 4,600
(84 percent) licensed pharmacists are employed at
practice sites in Minnesota. Of those licensed Minnesota
pharmacists, 4,051 (86.5 percent) work at one of the more
than 1360 licensed pharmacies and 633 (13.5 percent)
work for one of the 230 unlicensed employers.
Through its licensing and relicensing process the
Minnesota Board of Pharmacy collects practice
information for each pharmacist and pharmacy with a
state lic ense. An examination of these data reveals a
Figure 5: Regional Distribution of Pharmacists by
Educational Attainment Location of Pharmacist, 2001
100%
90%
80%
70%
Percent
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
East Central Twin Cities
South
Northeast
Central
South
Central
North
Central
Southeast
Central
Southwest
North
Southwest West Central
University of Minnesota
North Dakota State
South Dakota State
Other Institutions
Source: Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, 2001.
Minnesota Pharmacist Workforce Profile, Page 5
Northwest
number of important factors about the supply of
pharmacists, including important educational and
demographic trends in the workforce and the geographic
distribution of pharmacists working at licensed
pharmacies and for unlicensed employers.
Figure 6: Distribution of Pharmacists by
Employment Site, 2001
Other, Non
Pharmacy
Related
1.1%
Relief
1.3%
Teaching/
Government
1.9%
Unemployed
1.0%
Manufacturing
0.9%
Nursing Home
0.7%
Nuclear
0.4%
Retired
2.3%
Home Health
Care
2.6%
Other, Pharmacy
Related
7.0%
Retail
60.4%
Hospital
20.3%
Source: Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, 2001.
Table 1: Top 20 Employers of Pharmacists, 2001
Percent of
Number State Total
Employer
City
St. Mary's Hospital
Rochester
93
2.4%
Express Scripts *
Bloomington
85
2.2%
VA Medical Center
Minneapolis
61
1.5%
Abbot Northwestern Hospital
Minneapolis
49
1.2%
University of Minnesota *
Minneapolis
40
1.0%
United Hospital and Children’s
Saint Paul
40
1.0%
HCMC – Outpatient Pharmacy
Minneapolis
39
1.0%
Fairview Southdale
Edina
38
1.0%
HCMC – Hospital Pharmacy
Minneapolis
37
0.9%
Fairview University Medical Center
Minneapolis
36
0.9%
Methodist Hospital Outpatient
Saint Louis Park
35
0.9%
Regions Hospital
Saint Paul
33
0.8%
Children's Hospital
Minneapolis
32
0.8%
Mayo Clinic
Rochester
31
0.8%
Methodist Hospital
Saint Louis Park
29
0.7%
Advance PCS *
Minneapolis
26
0.7%
North Memorial Medical Center
Robbinsdale
25
0.6%
Advance PCS *
Bloomington
22
0.6%
Saint Cloud Hospital
Saint Cloud
21
0.5%
St. Mary's Medical Center
Duluth
21
Total
*Unlicensed employer.
Source: Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, 2001.
793
0.5%
16.8%
Employment Overview
Pharmacists work at a variety of employment sites. The
majority, six out of ten pharmacists, works in a retail
setting. See Figure 6. Hospital pharmacists account for
the second largest group of pharmacists. Hospitals also
tend to have the highest concentration of pharmacists at
one employment site. For example, St. Mary’s Hospital
Pharmacy in Rochester employs over 90 (2.4 percent of
all pharmacists in Minnesota) full- and part-time
pharmacists and the Veterans Administration Medical
Center Pharmacy in Minneapolis employs 61 (1.5 percent
of all pharmacists in Minnesota) full- and part-time
pharmacists. See Table 1. Of those pharmacists working
for an unlicensed employer, most work in teaching,
government, or for “pharmacy related” employers. Some
of these pharmacy related employers employ a large
number of pharmacists — i.e., Express Scripts (85) and
Advance PCS (48) — and focus mostly on mail/internet
order and healthcare management aspects of the
pharmaceutical business.
Almost 70 percent of pharmacists at both unlicensed and
licensed employers work full-time. Pharmacists working
in urban counties have a slightly higher rate of full-time
employment compared to rural counties. Close to 800
pharmacists (20 percent) report currently holding more
than one pharmacist position. The median years of tenure
for pharmacists with their current position is three years.
This includes pharmacists who were new to the labor
market and those who have worked in the profession for
many years. While this figure is roughly the same as the
national average,10 the fact that well over half of the
state’s pharmacists started a new position in the last three
years is remarkable. This finding further reinforces the
view that a tight labor market for pharmacists is currently
creating incentives and opportunities for more
pharmacists to change jobs.
Demographic Trends: Age and Gender
The pharmacist profession is undergoing a profound
demographic change. At present, one half of all active
pharmacists are over the age of 45. See Figure 7. On
average, rural pharmacists are almost four years older
than their urban counterparts. At the regional level, the
pharmacist workforce in several regions, including
Southeastern, Central and South Central Minnesota along
with the Twin Cities have an average age near or below
the state average of 44.7 years of age. All other regions
of the state have a pharmacist workforce above the state
average, including the Northwest at 52.3 years of age and
the Central Southwest at 50 years of age.
In addition, over half of the pharmacists in these two
regions were over the age of 50.
As the pharmacist workforce ages, a dramatic shift has
taken place in the younger pharmacist workforce. In the
Minnesota Pharmacist Workforce Profile, Page 6
their male counterparts. For example, only 24 percent of
female pharmacists work in rural counties, compared to
34 percent of male pharmacists. In fact, almost twothirds of all female pharmacists work in the Twin Cities
metropolitan region, compared to only 52 percent of male
pharmacists.
Figure 7: Age Distribution of Minnesota
Pharmacists
20%
18%
16%
Percent
14%
Distribution
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64
65-69
70+
Age Cohort
Source: Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, 2001.
past, the pharmacist profession was composed mostly of
men. At present, the proportion of pharmacists who are
women in Minnesota is 44 percent. In the future, the
number of female pharmacists will likely grow due to the
fact that more women than men are attending and
graduating from schools of pharmacy both in Minnesota
and the rest of the nation. In fact, the vast majority of
young pharmacists working in Minnesota are female —
two-thirds of all pharmacists below the age of 35. By
contrast, almost nine of every 10 pharmacists over the
age of 55 are male. See Figure 8.
On average, female pharmacists are more likely to work
part-time hours than male pharmacists — 38 percent and
24 percent respectively. While male pharmacists still
outnumber female pharmacists at retail pharmacies,
female pharmacists compose the majority of the
workforce at public, private and satellite hospital sites
and parenteral/enteral and home health care sites. Female
pharmacists were more likely to work in urban areas than
Percent
Figure 8: More Women Are Becoming
Pharmacists: Pharmacist Age by Gender, 2001
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Females
Males
25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70+
Age Cohort
Source: Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, 2001.
An analysis of the distribution of pharmacists, and the
pharmacies they work at throughout the state, suggests
that the state’s rural residents do not have the same level
of access to services as do their urban counterparts.
While there is relative equality in the number of
pharmacies between rural and urban regions of the state,
there were more parts of rural Minnesota that were either
served by only one pharmacy or have no local access to
pharmacy services. This finding is reinforced by the fact
that there were more pharmacists employed in urban than
in rural counties by a ratio of 2 to 1. See Table 2 on the
following page.
One reason for fewer pharmacists practicing in rural areas
is the greater difficulty rural employers have finding and
affording an additional part- or full-time pharmacist to fill
an already vacant or new position. Rural pharmacists
also report working longer hours to meet the demand for
services. In addition, rural pharmacists report they have
added difficulty finding a replacement or relief
pharmacist to fill in for them when they want to take time
off. 11
In strict population to provider terms, the ratio of
pharmacists to the population is slightly lower in rural
Minnesota — 1 pharmacist for every 1,184 rural
Minnesotans and 1 pharmacist for every 1,010 urban
Minnesotans. Minnesota’s population to provider ratio
for pharmacists is slightly higher than the national
average.12 The ratio is at parity for the number of
community/hospital outpatient pharmacists per urban and
rural residents. At the regional level, the Southeast, the
Central Southwest and the Twin Cities had pharmacist to
population ratios well above the state average (1:1,022).
Several regions of the state, including Southern and
Central Minnesota, had much lower pharmacist to
population ratios — 1:1,397 and 1:1,391 respectively.
See Map 1 on Page 9. While the ratio of providers to the
population is an important indicator of access, it can be
misleading since it does not account for the distance that
must be traveled to obtain pharmacy services or the hours
of service at the pharmacy. On average, rural residents in
Minnesota must travel farther to receive services than
their urban counterparts.13
When compared to the urban pharmacy workforce, the
pharmacist workforce in rural Minnesota counties tends
to be older, composed mostly of males, and employed in
Minnesota Pharmacist Workforce Profile, Page 7
Table 2: Urban and Rural Differences in the Distribution of Licensed Pharmacies and Pharmacists
Location
Rural
447
75
18
39
24
4
1
1
609
1:1
Pharmacy Type
Community/Hospital Outpatient
Private Hospital
Home Health Care
Nursing Home
Public Hospital
Federal
Satellite Hospital
Nuclear
Total
Rural to Urban Ratio
Percent
Employment
Urban
540
37
22
24
6
4
1
3
637
Percent Women
Rural Urban
1,076 1,877
208
670
53
184
96
131
47
53
10
77
3
35
2
10
1,495 3,037
1:2
Percent Ages 55+
Percent Full-time
Rural Urban
35%
46%
38%
52%
34%
63%
36%
50%
43%
60%
20%
53%
33%
74%
100%
60%
Rural Urban
29%
18%
16%
10%
21%
9%
21%
17%
21%
8%
50%
26%
0%
3%
0%
0%
Rural Urban
64%
71%
60%
71%
66%
66%
75%
79%
57%
58%
60%
70%
100%
57%
100%
90%
35%
26%
64%
49%
16%
71%
Source: Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, 2001.
Is there a shortage of pharmacists in Minnesota?
Findings from this workforce profile do suggest that a
shortage currently exists both in terms of the total number
of pharmacists needed in the state and their distribution
across Minnesota. However, it is impossible to measure
with precision the severity of the shortage without more
information. Greater precision through the collection and
analysis of a comprehensive set of supply and demand
data, including the data presented in this profile, over
time is needed and would result in a more precise
measure of the contours and the severity of a shortage.
So what does the workforce profile reveal about the
current condition of the pharmacist workforce? Overall,
the results from the survey of licensed employers reveal a
very tight labor market and strong demand for
pharmacists. Pharmacist employment and wages showed
strong growth during the 1990s. In addition, the current
demand for both part- and full-time pharmacists is greater
than the number of pharmacists currently being graduated
by the three schools that train eight out of ten of the
state’s pharmacists.
Still, this simplistic matching of new graduates to current
openings fails to account for the constant churning that
occurs in the pharmacist workforce. It is important to
remember that not all vacant pharmacist positions are
filled with a new or recent graduate. Many are filled with
experienced pharmacists who left one employer to work
for another. This “employment churning” in the labor
market is somewhat visible in the total number of
pharmacists successfully added to licensed pharmacies in
the past year — 555 actual pharmacist positions reported
through the survey. It is even more observable in the
relicensing data that shows that almost one-third of the
pharmacist workforce started a new pharmacist position
in 2000 and 2001. Not all of these “new pharmacists”
were new or recent graduates, but instead reflect a much
broader range of ages and professional experience. In
fact only one-third of all the “new” positions filled by
pharmacists in 2000 graduated from a pharmacy school
between 1995 and 2000. See Figure 9.
Regional differences were also very important in defining
Figure 9: New Pharmacist Postions by
the contours
of the demand for pharmacists and access to
Graduation Year of Pharmacist Filling Position in
pharmacy services. On average, pharmacies in rural
2000
counties currently have to wait longer to find a
25%
pharmacist
to fill a vacant position. The rural pharmacist
workforce
tends
to be older and more male than the urban
20%
workforce. In addition, rural residents in many parts of
the state
15% do not have the same access to pharmacy
services that urban residents enjoy.
Percent
more part-time positions. See Table 2. Overall, roughly
one-third of all pharmacists working in rural counties are
female compared to almost half of all urban pharmacists.
Furthermore, new pharmacist graduates are more likely to
begin their professional careers with an employer in an
urban rather than a rural setting. For example, of the 150
pharmacy school graduates (graduated in 2000) hired in
2000, 83 percent were employed in urban counties in
Minnesota. Of the three schools that supply the majority
of the state’s pharmacists, South Dakota State had the
highest proportion of 2000 graduates go to work in rural
Minnesota (7 out of 18 or 38.9 percent), followed by
North Dakota State (4 out of 20 or 20 percent) and the
University of Minnesota (12 out of 85 or 14.1 percent).
10%
On the supply side, two demographic factors — gender
5%
and age
— continue to shape the current and future
composition
of the workforce. As the pharmacist
0%
workforce
ages,
the 1975-79
proportion
female
pharmacists
Before 1970-74
1980-84 of
1985-89
1990-94
1995-99 2000
1970
(currently 44 percent) will account for more than half of
Year
the workforce in the state. Graduation
This demographic
trend, when
Source: Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, 2001.
combined with
the fact that female pharmacists were, on
Minnesota Pharmacist Workforce Profile, Page 8
Map 1: Population to Pharmacist Ratio, Minnesota, 2001
Minnesota Pharmacist Workforce Profile, Page 9
Regional differences were also very important in defining
the contours of the demand for pharmacists and access to
pharmacy services. On average, pharmacies in rural
counties currently have to wait longer to find a
pharmacist to fill a vacant position. The rural pharmacist
workforce tends to be older and more male than the urban
workforce. In addition, rural residents in many parts of
the state do not have the same access to pharmacy
services that urban residents enjoy.
On the supply side, two demographic factors — gender
and age — continue to shape the current and future
composition of the workforce. As the pharmacist
workforce ages, the proportion of female pharmacists
(currently 44 percent) will account for more than half of
the workforce in the state. This demographic trend, when
combined with the fact that female pharmacists are, on
average, more likely to work part-time than males,
suggests that the state will need to add to the pharmacist
workforce simply to remain at current capacity levels.
See Figure 10.
Full-time to Part-time Ratio
7
6
Female
Pharmacists
5
Male
Pharmacists
4
3
2
1
0
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64
65-69
For more information about this profile, please
contact Michael Grover by phone at (651) 282-5642 or
email at [email protected].
This information will be made available in alternative
format — large print, Braille, or audiotape — upon
request. Available on the Web at:
www.health.state.mn.us/divs/chs/workforce.htm
Data
Sources
Figure 10: Employment Status by Gender
and Age
25-29
in the long-term will require several interrelated
initiatives: (1) expand the capacity of the University of
Minnesota’s School of Pharmacy to produce new
pharmacists, (2) require that additional state assistance to
the University of Minnesota’s College of Pharmacy be
dependent upon the school’s ability to create rural
pharmacists, (3) create scholarship and loan forgiveness
programs for pharmacists, especially for those who are
willing to serve in rural Minnesota, and (4) strongly
recommend that the federal government further subsidize
those pharmacy schools that produce rural pharmacists.
70+
Age Cohort
Source: Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, 2001.
The findings in this profile also imply a number of shortand long-term policy directions that could be followed to
meet the current (and future) demand for pharmacists in
the state. Approximately 20 percent of the state’s
pharmacist workforce works part-time for one employer.
One short-term resolution would be to encourage more of
these part-time pharmacists to add additional hours or
work full-time. While this solution seems
straightforward it may actually require considerable effort
for both employers and pharmacists to change wellestablished staffing patterns and employment practices.
Overall, the aging of the pharmacist workforce, the
current demand for pharmacists, along with trends in
pharmacist graduation rates within the state and nation,
strongly suggest that increasing the supply of pharmacists
The data used to construct this profile come
from four sources. Three of these data
sources come directly from the Minnesota
Board of Pharmacy (MBP). MBP annually
licenses new and relicenses existing
pharmacies and practicing pharmacists and
pharmacist technicians. The first data set
contains the original application information
and updates for every pharmacist licensed to
practice in the state and contains mailing
information, license number, license status
and renewal, birth date, gender, education
and graduation information. This file was
last updated on March 1, 2001. The second
file from MBP is a list of all licensed
pharmacies that have active status from July
2000 to June 2001. In order to practice as
an “active” pharmacist, every licensed
practitioner must annually renew his or her
license. The last data set used in this profile
contains information obtained through the
license renewal form, including
employment location and type and part- or
full-time employment status. This file was
last updated on March 1, 2001. Because
this file contained missing values and errors
in respondent coding, this database was
edited in order to provide a more robust
estimate of current pharmacist employment.
Examples of editing included completing
incomplete address and license information
and standardizing the addresses listed by
respondents using the licensed employer
dataset. The final information source is
from data collected through a survey of all
licensed pharmacies conducted through the
MBP by the Office of Rural Health and
Primary Care at the Minnesota Department
of Health in 2001.
Minnesota Pharmacist Workforce Profile, Page 10
Notes
1
Occupational Employment Estimates, BLS and MDES, 1999.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) is used as a proxy for inflation.
1990 and 2000 Annual Average, CPI (U), BLS and 1990 and 1999
Salary Surveys, MDES.
3
Examining the occupational projections from the Minnesota
Department of Economic Security reveals that the present level of
pharmacist employment is roughly equal to the projected employment
in 2008. Consequently, only the projected percent change in
employment is used.
4
Urban counties include Olmsted, Saint Louis, and Stearns counties
and the seven county Twin Cities metropolitan area (Anoka, Carver,
Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, and Washington counties).
5
The number of actual (246) and estimated pharmacist vacancies
(330) is very different from the estimate of 69 openings derived by the
Minnesota Department of Economic Security’s (MDES) Statewide
Job Vacancy Survey for roughly the same period of 2001. The
difference between the estimates produced by the two surveys is likely
due to (1) methodological differences in the type of firms MDES
sampled and surveyed, (2) the focused mailing of the Minnesota
Pharmacy Vacancy Survey through the State Pharmacy Board’s
pharmacy relicensing packet and, to a lesser extent, (3) the more
streamlined survey instrument that was used.
6
The Minnesota Pharmacy Vacancy Survey is a survey of all licensed
pharmacies conducted through the MBP by the Office of Rural Health
and Primary Care at the Minnesota Department of Health. The survey
was sent to all relicensing pharmacies in May 2001 and asked
pharmacies to indicate how many vacant pharmacist and pharmacy
technician positions were currently vacant and how many they were
actively recruiting to fill. Survey responses were received and
recorded during June through August of 2001. There were
approximately 1,375 pharmacies, including those based in Minnesota
(1,142) and outside of the state (233), that were eligible to be
relicensed during this period. Of all eligible active Minnesota-based
pharmacies, 899 (78.7 percent) responded to the survey.
7
In order to estimate the number of vacant positions for all licensed
pharmacies, a pharmacist vacancy weight for all licensed pharmacies
that replied to the survey by the location (economic development
region) and size of the pharmacy was computed. These weights were,
in turn, applied to non-respondent pharmacies in order to estimate
non-respondent vacancies.
8
The Pharmacist Workforce: A Study of the Supply and Demand for
Pharmacists , BHP, HRSA, DHHS, 2000, Chapter 2.
9
Ibid ., Chapter 4.
10
Findings from the Current Population Survey (CPS) reveal that
workers in health diagnosing positions, of which pharmacists are
included, had a median of 3.3 years of tenure with their current
employer. See http://www.bls.gov/news.release/tenure.toc.htm.
11
Michelle Casey, Jill Klinger and Ira Moscovice, Access to Rural
Pharmacy Services in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota,
working Paper Series, Rural Health Research Center, University of
Minnesota, July 2001, 16-19.
12
According to estimates obtained by HRSA, the number of
Pharmacists per 100,000 population was 70.5 in Minnesota and 65.9
nationally. HRSA State Health Workforce Profiles, Minnesota, BHP,
HRSA, DHHS, 2000, 64.
13
Ibid ., 41-44.
2
Health Service Personnel Survey
and Database
In 1993, the Minnesota Legislature mandated
regular surveys of the state's health care providers
on a variety of issues. To meet this challenge, the
Health Services Personnel Survey and Database
Program was created within the Office of Rural
Health and Primary Care at the Minnesota
Department of Health. The Office maintains a
database of about 110,000 Minnesota medical
professionals. Although these health practitioners do
not have to complete the surveys to renew licensure
or registration, response rates vary between 60
percent and 90 percent depending on the position
surveyed.
Which professions are surveyed?
<
<
<
<
<
<
<
<
<
<
<
Physicians
Registered Nurses
Licensed Practical Nurses
Dentists
Dental Hygienists
Dental Assistants
Physical Therapists
Physician Assistants
Respiratory Care Practitioners
Chiropractors
Pharmacists
What information do the surveys gather?
<
<
<
<
<
<
<
<
Professional activity
Work hours
Practice location
Practice setting
Practice specialty
Educational background
Job tenure
Practitioner age and gender
For more information about the survey and
database, please contact:
Michael Grover
Senior Health Care Workforce Analyst
Office of Rural Health and Primary Care
Minnesota Department of Health
P.O. Box 64975
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55164
(651) 282-5642
[email protected]
Minnesota Pharmacist Workforce Profile, Page 11