Pharmacists
AI can help with a few sub-tasks (emails, paperwork), but the core of the job doesn't change.
Exposure is not job loss: it shows how much of the work generative AI could do today. Whether that turns into transformation, productivity gains or cuts depends on employers, regulation — and on you.
0 = today’s generative AI cannot perform any of the job’s tasks, 100 = it could do all of them fully. The pale band is the spread across tasks.
Work out your own score ↓What can you do?
The AI analysis for this occupation is still being prepared — the background process covers a few occupations every day.
Task by task
The ILO scored every task of the occupation separately, as the average of two AI models (GPT-4o and Gemini). The pale band is the range between the two models' scores, the dot the ILO's final score (for a few tasks expert review placed it outside the band).
- Providing information and advice to prescribers and clients regarding drug interactions, incompatibility and contraindications, side effects, dosage and proper medication storage50
- Maintaining prescription files and recording issue of narcotics, poisons and habit-forming drugs in accordance with legal and professional requirements41
- Evaluating labels, packaging and advertising of drug products37
- Testing and analysing drugs to determine their identity, purity and strength in relation to specified standards36
- Developing information and risks of particular drugs.36
- Advising clients on and supplying non-prescription medicines and diagnostic and therapeutic aids for common conditions35
- Supervising and coordinating the work of pharmacy technicians, pharmacy interns and pharmacy sales assistants34
- 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 dispensing34
- Conferring with chemists, engineering professionals and other professionals about manufacturing techniques and ingredients34
- Conducting research to develop and improve pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and related chemical products32
- 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 therapies31
- Preparing or supervising the preparation and labelling of liquid medicines, ointments, powders, tablets and other medications to fill prescriptions24
- Storing and preserving vaccines, serums and other drugs subject to deterioration11
How much does it affect you?
Every job is different: mark which of these tasks you do and how much, and we'll compute your own, time-weighted score.
For each task: I don't do it · sometimes · most of my job.
- Providing information and advice to prescribers and clients regarding drug interactions, incompatibility and contraindications, side effects, dosage and proper medication storage(50)
- Maintaining prescription files and recording issue of narcotics, poisons and habit-forming drugs in accordance with legal and professional requirements(41)
- Evaluating labels, packaging and advertising of drug products(37)
- Testing and analysing drugs to determine their identity, purity and strength in relation to specified standards(36)
- Developing information and risks of particular drugs.(36)
- Advising clients on and supplying non-prescription medicines and diagnostic and therapeutic aids for common conditions(35)
- Supervising and coordinating the work of pharmacy technicians, pharmacy interns and pharmacy sales assistants(34)
- 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(34)
- Conferring with chemists, engineering professionals and other professionals about manufacturing techniques and ingredients(34)
- Conducting research to develop and improve pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and related chemical products(32)
- 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(31)
- Preparing or supervising the preparation and labelling of liquid medicines, ointments, powders, tablets and other medications to fill prescriptions(24)
- Storing and preserving vaccines, serums and other drugs subject to deterioration(11)
You are exactly at the occupation average. (The occupation's score: 33.)
About 8% of your working time goes to highly exposed tasks (score ≥ 50).
- • Providing information and advice to prescribers and clients regarding drug interactions, incompatibility and contraindications, side effects, dosage and proper medication storage
- • 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
- • Preparing or supervising the preparation and labelling of liquid medicines, ointments, powders, tablets and other medications to fill prescriptions
An estimate from the ILO task scores. Everything is computed in your browser — nothing is sent or stored.
How many people work in this occupational group?
Share of the Health professionals group in total employment, by country (Eurostat, ISCO 2-digit — 4-digit breakdowns are not public by country).
Table view
| Country | Health professionals |
|---|---|
| Norway | 6.1% · 178 thousand · 2025 |
| Sweden | 5.3% · 276 thousand · 2025 |
| Switzerland | 5.1% · 246 thousand · 2025 |
| Denmark | 5.0% · 155 thousand · 2025 |
| Ireland | 5.0% · 141 thousand · 2025 |
| Belgium | 4.8% · 248 thousand · 2025 |
| United Kingdom | 4.5% · 1,529 thousand · 2025 |
| Netherlands | 4.2% · 416 thousand · 2025 |
| Austria | 4.2% · 188 thousand · 2025 |
| Portugal | 4.2% · 218 thousand · 2025 |
| Lithuania | 4.1% · 60 thousand · 2025 |
| Iceland | 3.8% · 9 thousand · 2025 |
| Spain | 3.8% · 838 thousand · 2025 |
| Greece | 3.7% · 161 thousand · 2025 |
| Poland | 3.6% · 614 thousand · 2025 |
| Malta | 3.5% · 12 thousand · 2025 |
| Cyprus | 3.5% · 18 thousand · 2025 |
| France | 3.2% · 938 thousand · 2025 |
| Luxembourg | 3.1% · 10 thousand · 2025 |
| Romania | 3.1% · 237 thousand · 2025 |
| Bulgaria | 3.0% · 88 thousand · 2025 |
| Estonia | 3.0% · 21 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovenia | 2.9% · 29 thousand · 2025 |
| Czechia | 2.9% · 150 thousand · 2025 |
| Latvia | 2.8% · 25 thousand · 2025 |
| Germany | 2.7% · 1,149 thousand · 2025 |
| Croatia | 2.4% · 41 thousand · 2025 |
| Hungary | 1.9% · 88 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovakia | 1.7% · 45 thousand · 2025 |
| Finland | 1.7% · 45 thousand · 2025 |
| Italy | 1.6% · 395 thousand · 2025 |
What do they earn?
Mean gross monthly earnings in the major occupational group (Professionals). Eurostat's earnings survey only publishes pay by occupation at 1 digit, so this is the job's broader group. Enterprises with 10+ employees, 2022.
By country, at purchasing power parity (PPS/month), so countries with different price levels can be compared.
- Switzerland6,389
- Luxembourg5,274
- Ireland4,873
- Germany4,807
- Belgium4,799
- Denmark4,446
- Norway4,237
- Austria4,099
- Netherlands4,031
- Iceland3,875
- EU273,850
- France3,791
- Finland3,769
- Romania3,559
- Sweden3,416
- Spain3,413
- Slovenia3,326
- Italy3,305
- Cyprus3,271
- Lithuania3,221
- Croatia2,890
- Czechia2,871
- Malta2,825
- Poland2,783
- Hungary2,777
- Portugal2,755
- Latvia2,671
- Estonia2,599
- Bulgaria2,359
- Slovakia2,345
- Greece2,321
Source: Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses22_21), every four years. The United Kingdom is not covered by the survey.
Outlook to 2035
Employment in the Health professionals group according to Cedefop's 2026 forecast.
thousand · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · 2026–2035: projection
Replacement demand is the jobs left by people retiring or changing careers — even a shrinking occupation can have many openings.
Related occupations
Sources: ILO WP140 (2025) · Eurostat lfsa_egai2d · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · WEF Future of Jobs 2025 · ESCO. The exposure score measures how much of an occupation's tasks generative AI could perform — not whether the job disappears. For information only, not career advice. How do we calculate this?