Pharmacist
Also called pharmacologist, retail pharmacist, dispensing chemist
Pharmacists prepare, dispense, and provide prescriptions for, over the counter medication. They offer clinical information on medicines, report suspected adverse reactions, and provide personalised support to patients. Pharmacists formulate and test medications in laboratories, and store, preserve, and distribute them.
What you'd do
Pharmacists · ILO- Receiving prescriptions for medicinal products from medical doctors and other health professionals, checking patients' medicine histories, and ensuring proper dosage and methods of administration and drug compatibility before dispensing
- Preparing or supervising the preparation and labelling of liquid medicines, ointments, powders, tablets and other medications to fill prescriptions
- Providing information and advice to prescribers and clients regarding drug interactions, incompatibility and contraindications, side effects, dosage and proper medication storage
- Collaborating with other health care professionals to plan, monitor, review, and evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the medicine therapy of individual patients, and the effectiveness of particular drugs or therapies
- Maintaining prescription files and recording issue of narcotics, poisons and habit-forming drugs in accordance with legal and professional requirements
- Storing and preserving vaccines, serums and other drugs subject to deterioration
- Advising clients on and supplying non-prescription medicines and diagnostic and therapeutic aids for common conditions
- Supervising and coordinating the work of pharmacy technicians, pharmacy interns and pharmacy sales assistants
- Conducting research to develop and improve pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and related chemical products
- Conferring with chemists, engineering professionals and other professionals about manufacturing techniques and ingredients
- Testing and analysing drugs to determine their identity, purity and strength in relation to specified standards
- Evaluating labels, packaging and advertising of drug products
- Developing information and risks of particular drugs
- Indoors
- A mix of sitting and standing
- Constant contact with people, including the public
- Good freedom to decide
- Usually 40 hours a week
- Deadlines most weeks
- Very repetitive tasks
Will there be jobs?
Yes, good prospects13 EU countries are short of pharmacists now, and many jobs will need filling by 2035.
Solid: measured. Dashed: forecast.
What does it pay?
Well above averagePay depends a lot on the country: from about €1,800 a month (Bulgaria) to €9,700 (Luxembourg), before tax.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see typical pay there, for people under 30, and compared with all jobs.
Among professionals in the EU, women earn 21% less per hour than men. Professionals · Eurostat
What do I need to study?
Usually a degreeA degree in pharmacy is the usual route.
946 institutions in the EU offer health and welfare bachelor's degrees. Pick a country at the top of the page to see where to study and the official course finders.
Will AI change it?
LittleAI could take on part of some tasks, but none fully.
Average task score 0.33 on a scale from 0 (AI can't do it) to 1 (AI could do it fully).
See the score for each of the 13 tasks
Based on what AI could technically do when assessed in 2025. It is not a forecast for a future year, and not a forecast of job losses. Scores for pharmacists. Source: ILO (2025), adapted (credits).