Stats as to why one should not do pharmacy

[glache]

Found this link as to why one should not do pharmacy: https://docs.employment.gov.au/node/31521

I only went through the NSW and VIC documents because they're the largest states, but I quote the following (2015 stats):

NSW

 The Department of Employment survey of employers who had recently advertised for pharmacists found that 94 per cent of vacancies were filled within the survey period. This compares with a success rate of 84 per cent in 2014.
 There was an average of 25 applicants per vacancy, of which an average of 2.5 per vacancy were considered suitable by employers. However, one vacancy attracted 200 applicants and the average number of applicants per vacancy for the other vacancies was 14.
 The success rate for filling vacancies in Sydney was 90 per cent while all surveyed vacancies in regional NSW were filled. However there were fewer suitable applicants per vacancy in regional NSW than in Sydney (1.7 compared to 3.0).

i.e. rural is not safe and there's been a 10% jump in vacancies being filled within a year

VIC

 The Department of Employment Survey of Employers who have Recently Advertised (SERA) found that 94 per cent of surveyed hospital and retail pharmacist vacancies were filled from an average of 19.1 applicants and 3.6 suitable applicants per vacancy.
o This is an improvement on the fill rate noted in 2014 when the survey found that 69 per cent of positions were filled from an average of 2.0 suitable applicants per vacancy.
o In 2013, 93 per cent of advertised positions were filled from 2.9 suitable applicants per vacancy.
 In metropolitan areas 100 per cent of vacancies were filled from an average of 23.5 applicants and 4.0 suitable applicants per vacancy. 83 percent of regional vacancies were filled from an average of 11.8 applicants and 2.8 suitable applicants per vacancy.

i.e. VIC is getting even more competitive than NSW and Melbourne is just chockers.

 

[Scarface]

Why don't you apply to other countries or even other cities in Australia?

 

[Benjamin]

This is a fairly well known issue if you talk to any upcoming pharmacy graduate or any hospital pharmacist - getting a job in a hospital is incredibly sought after and as such very difficult.

It tends to be that the bottleneck exists at the internship level and then again at the level of senior pharmacists trying to change hospitals - if you secure a hospital internship then you are almost guaranteed a job the next year in the same hospital. Now I think this is likely a product both of: the competitiveness meaning that only the best applicants are selected and as such its likely they'll resecure their job the next year AND the fact that it is almost impossible to progress from community pharmacy back into hospital pharmacy, meaning that the ratio number of applicants to jobs is closer to 1:1.

If that doesn't make sense here's some completely made up numbers: for pharmacy hospital internship there are 200 applicants for 4 positions, 4 people apply and the next year there are only those 4 people eligible for a second year pharmacy job + people who have also done their internship elsewhere in Australia.

I have definitely seen people with straight 7.0 GPA's, academic medals & copious amounts of work experience + great references not getting hospital jobs. It is incredibly competitive and will likely remain so for some time.

 

[glache]

@ Scarface--it's a systemic issue. I know because I'm a pharmacist. I'm only publishing these because there's finally hard data to back up what we've been all saying.
@ benjamin--you've hit the nail on the head. If you don't get a hospital internship forget (metro) hospital positions afterwards (I know of one person who has made the leap to hospital but only because it's rural). Your "made up" stats are not far off the mark. When I applied in 2009 for my 2010 hospital internship (ie the numbers would be even worse now), there were 50 applicants for the one spot. I was both in disbelief and honoured to be "the one" so to speak.