Pharmacist Surplus
By: Adrianna Mendoza
For most people college is an inelastic good meaning that it’s a necessity and as the years have gone on more and more people are finding college an inelastic good. What if you really wanted to go to college to become a pharmacist? Would the opportunity cost for going to pharmacy school and not having be able to get job after graduation be worth it? There a lot of answers to the question and nowadays people are say that yes the opportunity cost of going to school and not being able to get a job once coming out is worth it. That how surpluses are created along with shortages.
Many people know the struggles that students graduating from college face. Now that problem has become a reality for most pharmacy students and is expected to get worse according to Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians: Facts and Figures.
Not many of the students know what pharmacists actually do. They provide a critical part to the health care system by helping create drugs and know the right amount of drug to give a patient and to make sure the pharmacist explains to the patient how to use it properly. Now just think about all the students coming out of college expecting to be a part of this field and falling short and realizing there are no jobs for them.
The chart above is from an article called the Pharmacist & the Aggregate Demand Index and it shows the parts of the country that are either in a surplus or shortage situation. This is also a chart from the Man Power project and shows the demand index. If the Demand index is below a 3.0, it means that the pharmacists are in a surplus. Now a surplus is when there is too much supply to reach the demand of it meaning that there will be some left over. Now when something is in shortage it means that there is not enough of the supply to meet the demand. Meaning that their companies usually run out of a product due to the fact that it is so popular. According to the chart above the North East is in surplus meaning that pharmacist coming out of school don’t have any place to work. That pharmacy jobs are scarce but pharmacists aren’t. Lucky for us the good citizens in Wisconsin are not a part of this surplus problem yet. We can still use some pharmacists around here.
One factor that causes the problem of a pharmacist surplus is the fact that colleges are turning out way too many graduates. According to the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette it’s getting harder for pharmacist to find good flexible hours like the old days. Its not just because people are refusing to retire, its more of the fact that since there was a huge demand for pharmacists a couple of years ago schools decided to add a pharmacy graduate degree and build more schools. This then helped take care of the shortage problem but then surpassed equilibrium. This shows that the supply and demand were no longer equal and due to colleges adding more pharmacy classes means that they were turning out more pharmacy graduates causing a surplus. The chart above shows the total number of pharmacy graduates over the years. The increase in graduates just furthers my point in the fact that we are in a pharmacist surplus and it could get worse.
In conclusion if the American people don’t stop thinking the opportunity cost to go to school to be a pharmacist and graduate knowing a job won’t be available the economy will suffer and it will be harder to achieve equilibrium.
Work Cited
"Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians: Facts and Figures - DPEAFLCIO."DPEAFLCIO. Web. 22 Mar. 2015 <http://dpeaflcio.org/programs-publications/issue-fact-sheets/pharmacists-and-pharmacy-technicians-facts-and-figures/>
"Pharmacy Schools Turning out Too Many Grads." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Web. 22 Mar. 2015. <http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2013/10/27/Pharmacy-schools-turning-out-too-many-grads/stories/201310270094>
"Pharmacists & the Aggregate Demand Index | The Honest Apothecary |." The Honest Apothecary. Web. 22 Mar. 2015. <http://www.thehonestapothecary.com/2013/02/02/pharmacists-the-aggregate-demand-index/>
This is a very interesting post, in the sense that I was looking to go into Pharmacy. I have never thought that there was a surplus of pharmacists, especially because the baby boomers are starting to get older and demand more medications. However, the articles you mentioned do bring up some good points. There is not only a problem getting a job after pharmacy school, there has been a problem of actually being admitted to a good pharmacy school. When my sister graduated from the University of Kentucky about two years ago, she noticed that a lot of her classmates going into pharmacy were being wait listed for Kentucky's pharmacy school. This also brings up a problem, especially for students who pursued an undergraduate degree in Pre-Pharmacy, what will they do for a job if they can't get into a Pharmacy school. For future students who go are thinking of going into pharmacy I wonder if it would be smarter to major in chemistry or math, something that pertains to Pharmacy, but is versatile enough that a graduate could find another job.
ReplyDeleteBecoming a pharmacist is a long, difficult and enduring challenge that, like you said, isn't totally worth it in the end for some people. It is comparable to becoming a veterinarian - little to no demand, and a surplus of qualified vets without jobs. I agree with the risks that people take when going to school to become a pharmacist. It is even sadder to see that the position under a pharmacist, a pharmacy tech, has an average wage of $29,000. Pharmacists make bank though, and if one has the drive, money, and knowledge to become one, the benefits may outweigh the costs. They should definitely keep the costs in mind though, and as with the veterinarians, there will end up being a huge surplus in the end anyways.
ReplyDelete