Pharmacists
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.
321,970 people do this job in the US. $140,910 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 49%
- 15%
- 37%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 3%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 31%. Today's estimate: 35%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
The tasks
Sorted by . 21 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Work in hospitals or clinics or for Health Management Organizations (HMOs), dispensing prescriptions, serving as a medical team consultant, or specializing in specific drug therapy areas, such as oncology or nuclear pharmacotherapy.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 15% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Plan, implement, or maintain procedures for mixing, packaging, or labeling pharmaceuticals, according to policy and legal requirements, to ensure quality, security, and proper disposal.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 15% | 1.7 h25 min to 5 h | 51%Half by now | |
| Analyze prescribing trends to monitor patient compliance and to prevent excessive usage or harmful interactions.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 12% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | 77%Half by now | |
| 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.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 10% | 38 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Prepare sterile solutions or infusions for use in surgical procedures, emergency rooms, or patients' homes.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 8% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Manage pharmacy operations, hiring or supervising staff, performing administrative duties, or buying or selling non-pharmaceutical merchandise.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 1.7 h25 min to 6.7 h | 43%Half by Nov 2026 | |
| Assess the identity, strength, or purity of medications.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 25 min8 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Provide specialized services to help patients manage conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, smoking cessation, or high blood pressure.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 4% | 33 min17 min to 1.1 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Teach pharmacy students serving as interns in preparation for their graduation or licensure.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 4% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Compound and dispense medications as prescribed by doctors and dentists, by calculating, weighing, measuring, and mixing ingredients, or oversee these activities.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 4% | 25 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Review prescriptions to assure accuracy, to ascertain the needed ingredients, and to evaluate their suitability.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 3% | 10 min4 min to 25 min | 100%Half by now | |
| 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.Done daily by most who do it. | 2% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | 100%Half by now |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).