Pharmacy Technicians

High Risk
67%

Where Would You Like to Go Next?

Share your results with friends and family.
Get results for another job Compare to another job

Or, Explore This Profession in Greater Detail...

Vote Comments (10)
AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
67%
(High Risk)
POLLING
67%
(High Risk, Based on 284 votes)
Average: 67%
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
7.2%
by year 2033
WAGES
$40,300
or $19.37 per hour
Volume
460,280
as of 2023
SUMMARY
What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
3.9/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

People also viewed

Pharmacists Lawyers Computer Programmers Actors Electricians

Calculated automation risk

67% (High Risk)

High Risk (61-80%): Jobs in this category face a significant threat from automation, as many of their tasks can be easily automated using current or near-future technologies.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Assisting and Caring for Others

  • Finger Dexterity

  • Social Perceptiveness

  • Manual Dexterity

User poll

67% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted that it's probable this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 67% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Pharmacy Technicians will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

The following graph is shown where there are enough votes to produce meaningful data. It displays user poll results over time, providing a clear indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Pharmacy Technicians' job openings is expected to rise 7.2% by 2033

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Wages

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Pharmacy Technicians' was 40.300 $, or 19 $ per hour

'Pharmacy Technicians' were paid 16.1% lower than the national median wage, which stood at 48.060 $

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2023 there were 460,280 people employed as 'Pharmacy Technicians' within the United States.

This represents around 0.30% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 329 people are employed as 'Pharmacy Technicians'.

Job description

Prepare medications under the direction of a pharmacist. May measure, mix, count out, label, and record amounts and dosages of medications according to prescription orders.

SOC Code: 29-2052.00

Comments (10)

Leave a comment
Dawn Elizabeth Rodriguez (Highly likely)
23 Jun 2025 00:33
I work in healthcare. Anything that can be automated, will be. There's already automatic dispensing systems. AI just made medication robots and mobile dispensing units possible.
AB (Highly likely)
23 Oct 2024 19:19
Based on a retail pharmacy in which I work, we already use a variety of robots and technology to count prescriptions, determine which tablet/capsule is being counted, and find contraindications. Besides patient and prescriber contact, it is very likely that AI could take this position.
Eric (Low)
10 Jul 2023 14:42
I am a Chemotherapy pharmacy technician in a hospital. There are certain compounds that will always require a human to hand make and deliver.
Anonymous (Highly likely)
11 Jan 2023 08:41
This is because the professional training of pharmacy technicians is already getting automated by existing technology in pharmacies, and this trend will continue to grow.

One other thing is that their medical training is something that can get replaced not only by future technology but also by pharmacists. This will result in this job becoming obsolete within the next few decades.
RxAndroid
24 Apr 2021 16:29
Techs are already being replaced by automation dispensing units. I don't think there will be a 100% replacement but rather a change in role of technicians in being able to manage machinery and like others have mentioned, handle situations that can not be planned out. You can either embrace and adapt to technology/change or get replaced by A.I...I sure as hell know that I'll be the one who continues to manage automation dispensing machines. Legislation is the other hurdle to overcome with regards to pharmacist oversight of automation (state laws will dictate over federal)
Hospital Employee (Uncertain)
12 Apr 2021 22:17
Yes, but you also need technicians to maintain the robots, make deliveries (hospitals), answer phone calls, help customers, billing, medical etc. Thankfully I am an “Automation Specialist” for hospital pharmacy. Pyxis doesn’t take care of itself that’s for sure!
J Burrows (No chance)
02 Feb 2020 19:32
There are some aspects of the role that can be completely automated but there are others that cannot. For example, as registered professionals in the course of their duties, technicians will encounter situations that cannot be planned for. They have a responsibility to draw upon their knowledge and experience to make a professional judgement that considers the best outcome for their patient(s) and upholds the safety and well being of patients, staff and public society. In some circumstances, this may lead to a decision to contravene normal procedure or regulations if there is reasonably defensible justification. In addition, where automation can be implemented, these processes would still require human supervision by someone with specialist pharmacy training and technicians are best placed to do this. Whilst job numbers may be reduced by automation, the role will not become totally redundant anytime soon.
Alice (Moderate)
22 Dec 2019 14:23
Techs are likely to be replaced in my opinion. We can say that pharmacists don't like doing tech work, but their feelings really don't matter in this job market. Qualified Pharmacists are struggling to find jobs right now. And with so many pharmacy schools opening, the competition is going to become stiffer and stiffer. Also low level clerical work (like monitoring diversion of controlled substances) is already highly likely to be automated.
pharmtekken
17 Aug 2019 10:28
For the regular pharmacy tech I can see automation on the Horizon, but one thing remains certain Pharmacists will always only want to do "pharmacist work" and not want to do "tech work" thats not what they went to school for. Pharmacists enjoy the luxury of not being frontline when dealing with customers i.e. ringing them out at the register, answering non clinical questions at the pharmacy or over the phone. What I would advise the SMART pharmacy technician to do is to get out of retail. There are call centers and hospitals which I feel automation of tech duties would be hard to replace
Cooper (Uncertain)
04 Jun 2019 19:08
Some techs have other duties, like monitoring diversion by hospital personnel of controlled substances.
Leave a reply about this occupation
0/8000