By%20Sharon%20Terlep%20/%20The%20Detroit%20News

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By%20Sharon%20Terlep%20/%20The%20Detroit%20News

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Title: By%20Sharon%20Terlep%20/%20The%20Detroit%20News

1
Pulse strong for pharmacy jobsInflux of new
drugs and aging population means more druggists
are needed.

By Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
April 10, 2005

http//www.detnews.com/2005/careers/0504/10/B01-14
5427.htm
2
Dilemma

Finding enough druggists to dole out
prescriptions is no longer the pharmaceutical
field's biggest dilemma.
The new quandary Finding a place for swarms of
aspiring pharmacists, many of whom are being
turned away by pharmacy schools nationwide.
A wide open job market and starting salaries that
top 80,000 -- results of a critical shortage a
few years ago -- have students lining up to
dispense drugs. They also are attracted by a
medical field without the on-call shifts of a
doctor and an atmosphere mostly separated from
patients.

3
Labor Market Features

Median salary for a pharmacist is 92,964,
according to mysalary.com.
Druggists are needed to meet the demands of an
aging population and an industry that's turning
out record numbers of new drugs. Rite Aid Corp.
will open four new stores this spring in
southeast Michigan.
Retail pharmacy sales nationally hit 221 billion
in 2004, a 21 percent increase over 2002,
according to the National Association of Chain
Drug Stores.
The demand for pharmacists in Michigan, on a
scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being a severe shortage,
is 3.60, according to a survey released by the
drugstore association last week. That means
there's some difficulty filling pharmacy
positions.

That's better than five years ago, when the
number of unfilled store pharmacist positions
nationwide rose to nearly 7,000 from 2,700 in two
years, according to the association. There were
about 4,700 openings in 2003.
Wayne State received more than 900 applications
for 80 spots this fall in its four-year program
to earn a doctorate in pharmacy science. Wayne
State includes Oakland University students
because of a recently formed partnership to train
druggists.
Classes won't get much bigger than that, in part
because Metro Detroit lacks qualified pharmacies
to train students. Students spend the last year
of their education working in a pharmacy, and
drugstores must meet certain criteria to qualify
as a training site. Wayne State is working with
area Kroger stores to help make their pharmacies
fit for training students.