Shutterstock.com
The number of online job advertisements for pharmacists in the UK fell in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, according to data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
According to the latest ONS data on labour demand volumes, the number of online job adverts for pharmacists fell in every region of the UK in the second quarter of 2024, apart from Northern Ireland, where it stayed the same.
In total, there was a 21% drop in online job adverts for pharmacist roles in England, Wales and Scotland from 5,625 adverts in the second quarter of 2023 to 4,460 in the second quarter of 2024 — a decrease of 1,165 adverts.
The biggest quarterly drops in online job adverts were recorded in the north east of England, where they fell by 53% from 170 to 80, and the East Midlands, which fell by 30% from 445 to 310 (see Figure).
The ONS based its definition of pharmacist on the standard occupation classification, which includes pharmacists in hospitals and community pharmacies. Figures are calculated on online job adverts using web-scraping software drawing information from approximately 90,000 job boards and recruitment pages.
Rob Connah, president of the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists (GHP), said: “There are degrees of stasis and decline in the job market for pharmacists at the moment as this ONS data show.
“Community pharmacies are closing at an alarming rate in England. NHS organisations are deploying measures such as vacancy gapping, recruitment freezes, and subjecting higher bands (8 and above) to heavy-handed scrutiny as spend is tightened.
“The GHP has also heard that many pharmacists are also staying put in their current position due to economic uncertainty and cost of living increases.”
Malcolm Harrison, chief executive of the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA), commented: “Pharmacist vacancy rates remain high. The 2023 ‘Community Pharmacy Workforce Survey‘ results show 18% of [full-time equivalent] FTE pharmacist posts [were] vacant, up from 4% in 2017. There are also concerning levels of vacancies in Scotland.
“Years of underfunding has forced pharmacy businesses to find efficiencies and, as a result, prevented them from expanding their workforce as they’d like.”
He added: “It is important that a decade of forced efficiency savings, which have shrunk the pharmacy network are reversed.
“This in turn will ensure that community pharmacy remains an attractive employer for pharmacy professionals, as well as improving access to primary care for patients.”
According to the 2023 NHS England Community Pharmacy Workforce Survey, pharmacist vacancy rates increased by two percentage points on the previous year from 16% in 2022 to 18% in 2023.
However, in the year between 2021 and 2022, the proportion of pharmacist roles that were vacant doubled from 8% to 16%.
In 2022, Somerset had the highest vacancy rate for community pharmacist roles in the country, with almost a third (32%) of the 237 FTE positions unfilled, with residents in the south west of England hit particularly hard by pharmacy closures as a result of workforce shortages.
This fell in 2023, with 29% of 190 FTE positions unfilled. However, the area still had the highest vacancy rate in the country.
Analysis by the CCA, published earlier in 2024, revealed a net loss of 1,180 pharmacies in England since 2015 — 34.9% of which took place in the 20% most deprived communities. Earlier this year, The Pharmaceutical Journal also reported that more than a fifth of community pharmacies had scaled back their opening hours since 2022.
