Background
The Pharmacy Workforce Center, a nonprofit corporation comprised of nine national pharmacy professional organizations, financed the Pharmacy Aggregate Demand Index (ADI) and the Pharmacist Demand Indicator (PDI). The ADI (which began in 1999) and the PDI (which was transitioned from the ADI in 2016) collected and disseminated data on the demand for pharmacists in the United States utilizing a panel of pharmacist employers. In January 2019, the PDI was temporarily suspended due to inconsistency in the number of panelists participating in the survey which led to the inability to report results on a state-level.
The Pharmacy Demand Report (PDR) was developed to replace the PDI and to provide an enhanced measurement of pharmacist demand in the United States. This information is intended to be utilized by the pharmacy profession and other stakeholders to assess and follow the trends for various career opportunities for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians on an individual state, region and metropolitan area level. The inaugural PDR was released by the PWC in September 2020.
Pharmacy Demand Report Sourcing and Components
The information contained in the Pharmacy Demand Report (PDR) is generated from the Emsi-Burning Glass' Developer tool. Emsi-Burning Glass delivers job market analytics that empower employers, workers, and educators to make data-driven decisions. The company’s artificial intelligence technology analyzes hundreds of millions of publicly available job postings and real-life career transitions to provide insight into labor market patterns. This real-time strategic intelligence offers crucial insights, such as which jobs are most in demand, the specific skills employers need, and the career directions that offer the highest potential for workers.
The pharmacist demand information presented in the PDR reflects information generated the Burning Glass Occupations (BGTOCCs) Taxonomy, which is derived from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) SOC and O*NET codes.i Based on analysis of real-time job titles and requirements for skills and education, the BLS occupations were adapted to more accurately reflect current employer demand--separating out distinct occupations that BLS codes as one occupation in some cases and consolidating similar occupations that BLS splits out. The PDR information is generated from the Burning Glass Occupations of “Pharmacist/Pharmacy Director” and “Pharmacy Technician”.
The pharmacist specialized occupations presented in the PDR are generated from the Specialized Occupations within the BGTOCCs that define occupation specializations and provide more granularity in occupation categorization. For example, the Pharmacist/Pharmacy Director category is split into several specialties, which include Hospital Pharmacist and Retail Pharmacist. Although the pharmacy profession has adopted different terminology for some pharmacist positions or areas of practice (e.g., community pharmacist instead of retail pharmacist; ambulatory care pharmacist), the PDR classifications reflect those that are captured by the BGTOCC taxonomy. The PDR classifications will be updated as they are updated by the GTOCC taxonomy and the BLS. The pharmacist information that will be reported includes information generated for the following occupations:
- Clinical Pharmacist
- Hospital Pharmacist
- Pharmacy Director
- Other Pharmacist Occupations* (includes the pharmacist occupations Compounding Pharmacist, Informatics Pharmacist, Infusion Pharmacist, Long-Term Care Pharmacist, Nuclear Pharmacist, Oncology Pharmacist)
- Retail Pharmacist
The pharmacy technician occupation currently does not have any Specialized Occupations within the BGTOCCs. Therefore, the pharmacy technician jobs will be reported as one category in the PDR.
The PDR information is generated from a query that includes U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, the BGTOCC or specialized occupation, and certification (pharmacist license for pharmacist occupations).
The PDR will be reported at the beginning of each calendar quarter. Each of the pharmacist occupations and the pharmacy technician occupation will have the following information presented in the PDR:
- The number of job postings by United States region (information presented for each quarter of the previous calendar year and each quarter of the current calendar year):
- Northeast: includes CT, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI and VT.
- Midwest: includes IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, and WI.
- South: includes AL, AR, DE, DC, FL, GA, KY, LA, MD, MS, NC, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA, and WV.
- West: includes AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA, and WY.
- The number of job postings by state (information presented for each quarter of the previous calendar year and each quarter of the current calendar year):
- Each state will have the number of licensed pharmacists based on information acquired from the previous year's October National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) E-Profile Aggregate Data report.
- Due to the variability of pharmacy technician classifications by state boards of pharmacy, data on the number of licensed or registered pharmacy technicians from NABP is not provided in the PDR. The number of pharmacy technicians provided by state is generated from reports available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.ii
- The Postings Quotient is provided for the total number of job postings for the previous calendar year and adjusts the number of job postings per 1,000 licensed pharmacists or 1,000 pharmacy technicians in the state. The Postings Quotient is generated by dividing the number of total job postings by the number of licensed pharmacists or pharmacy technicians reported for each state and multiplying by 1,000.
- The number of job postings for the Top 25 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) for the occupation (information presented for the previous calendar year and the previous quarter for the current calendar year).
- The Location Quotient recognizes how concentrated demand is for a particular geographic area relative to the national demand.
Additional Information
The PDR will be reported each quarter starting 3rd quarter 2020. Additional information will be added to the PDR over time to provide more information regarding pharmacist demand. Contact Tom Maggio, PWC Secretary/Treasurer at TMaggio@aacp.org or 703-479-3832 with any PDR-related questions.
*This is a PWC-generated category as the pharmacist job postings included were reported were very low numbers.
iO*Net Resource Center: The O*Net-SOC Taxonomy. https://www.onetcenter.org/taxonomy.html. Accessed July 31, 2020.
iiU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Employment Statistics. https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/home. Accessed July 31, 2020.