The pharmaceutical industry is experiencing a boom in job openings as the COVID-19 vaccine is distributed nationwide.
Pharmacies across the country were laying off pharmacists during the pandemic as recently as this summer, but now, many are turning to recent retirees and the public to join the field, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“Calling all pharmacists, nurses and pharmacy techs,” CVS wrote in a mass email sent to customers, in which the company announced it will hire thousands of healthcare professionals. CVS employs 34,000 pharmacists and 65,000 technicians but did not specify how many workers it was looking to hire. Walgreens has announced its intentions to hire about 25,000 people across the country, including 8,000 to 9,000 pharmacists and other healthcare workers, to administer the vaccine. The company employs 75,000 pharmacists and technicians.
Among other pharmacy chains, CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. have partnered with the government to serve as COVID-19 vaccine sites.
“There is a sense of pride, of wanting to step up,” said Rick Gates, a senior vice president at Walgreens. “We have people coming out of retirement saying, ‘I absolutely want to help.'”
The pharmacist job market has been declining for years, given the number of annual graduates far exceeds job openings. The U.S. Department of Labor believes the market for them will shrink by 3% in the next decade, according to data from 2019.
“It’s a supply and demand thing — we didn’t have enough supply [a decade ago from pharmacy schools], and now we have too much supply,” said Scott Knoer, president of the American Pharmacists Association.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, President-elect Joe Biden’s choice for surgeon general, said he expects the vaccine to be available for the public closer to the third quarter of 2021, rather than in the spring when other federal officials have suggested, even though many healthcare professionals have already begun immunization.
The coronavirus, which came to the United States approximately 10 months ago, has now infected over 17 million people in the country and killed more than 300,000.
