---
title: "Pharmacist"
description: "Dispense drugs prescribed by physicians and other health practitioners and provide information to patients about medications and their use. May advise…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/pharmacist"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Pharmacist

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1051 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1051.00

Dispense drugs prescribed by physicians and other health practitioners and provide information to patients about medications and their use. May advise physicians and other health practitioners on the selection, dosage, interactions, and side effects of medications.

Also advertised as: Clinical Pharmacist; Hospital Pharmacist; Informatics Pharmacist; Pharm D (Pharmacy Doctor); Pharmacist in Charge (PIC); Pharmacy Coordinator; Pharmacy Informaticist; Pharmacy Services Clinical Coordinator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $140,910 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $67.75/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $99,290 to $174,230, with the middle half between $129,380 and $161,840
- **Total US employment:** 321,970
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +4.6% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 14,200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 34/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 321,970 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $99,290 |
| 25th | $129,380 |
| 50th (median) | $140,910 |
| 75th | $161,840 |
| 90th | $174,230 |
| Mean (average) | $140,920 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AK | $167,310 | $163,454 | 560 |
| OR | $165,960 | $160,563 | 3,250 |
| CA | $164,610 | $148,672 | 34,030 |
| HI | $163,220 | $148,448 | 1,190 |
| WA | $160,610 | $150,085 | 7,350 |
| MN | $159,740 | $161,974 | 6,310 |
| CO | $156,030 | $151,409 | 4,560 |
| DC | $153,400 | $139,580 | 850 |
| DE | $152,880 | $153,174 | 790 |
| WI | $148,740 | $158,074 | 5,730 |
| NM | $147,000 | $159,415 | 1,730 |
| AZ | $146,930 | $145,942 | 6,900 |
| SD | $146,790 | $165,703 | 1,280 |
| ID | $144,900 | $151,737 | 1,790 |
| IN | $144,290 | $154,604 | 6,430 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/pharmacist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/pharmacist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 335,100 in the 2024–2034 base year to 350,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 15,400 jobs, or +4.6%. Faster than average: 4.6% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 14,200 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Doctoral or professional degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Doctoral Degree | 78.4% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 11.5% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 5.1% |
| First Professional Degree | 3.4% |
| High School Diploma | 1.8% |

## What the work involves

- Provide information and advice regarding drug interactions, side effects, dosage, and proper medication storage.
- Review prescriptions to assure accuracy, to ascertain the needed ingredients, and to evaluate their suitability.
- Maintain records, such as pharmacy files, patient profiles, charge system files, inventories, control records for radioactive nuclei, or registries of poisons, narcotics, or controlled drugs.
- Analyze prescribing trends to monitor patient compliance and to prevent excessive usage or harmful interactions.
- Order and purchase pharmaceutical supplies, medical supplies, or drugs, maintaining stock and storing and handling it properly.
- Plan, implement, or maintain procedures for mixing, packaging, or labeling pharmaceuticals, according to policy and legal requirements, to ensure quality, security, and proper disposal.
- Assess the identity, strength, or purity of medications.
- Collaborate with other health care professionals to plan, monitor, review, or evaluate the quality or effectiveness of drugs or drug regimens, providing advice on drug applications or characteristics.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Social (S), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 5.67 |
| S — Social | 4.88 |
| C — Conventional | 4.56 |
| R — Realistic | 2.82 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.62 |
| A — Artistic | 1.48 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISFJ | 66.9 |
| ISTJ | 65.4 |
| ESTJ | 59.5 |
| INTJ | 58.3 |
| ESFJ | 56.8 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ, ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Emergency Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medicine-physician) — median $335,550
- [Nurse Practitioner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-practitioner) — median $132,300
- [Family Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/family-medicine-physician) — median $244,180
- [Physician Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physician-assistant) — median $135,880
- [General Internal Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/general-internal-medicine-physician) — median $256,560
- [Clinical Nurse Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-nurse-specialist) — median $97,550
- [Allergist and Immunologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/allergist-and-immunologist) — median $265,930
- [Pediatrician, General](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pediatrician-general) — median $210,040
- [Preventive Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/preventive-medicine-physician) — median $265,930
- [Hospitalist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hospitalist) — median $265,930

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/pharmacist