Workforce update - Joiners, leavers, and practising and non-practising pharmacists on the 2005 Register

Previous analysis of the Register indicated that it has been increasing in size by around 2 per cent per year since 1991. This year, however, the number of pharmacists decreased by 2.48 per cent. After recent restructuring of the Register non-practising pharmacists now represent almost 14 percent of GB registrants. The decline in overall numbers on the Register is attributable to a higher than average number of pharmacists leaving, rather than a decline in the number of new entrants to the profession. Although it is natural for any loss from the Register to give rise to some concern, findings presented here suggest that the majority of recent leavers are either living or working overseas, living in Great Britain but not employed as a pharmacist in any capacity and usually over retirement age or, where employed at the last workforce census, only working a few hours per week. Similarly, in the main the non-practising Register is also made up of older pharmacists previously not actively employed or working less than 10 hours a week on average. Pharmacists with a registered address overseas are also represented in much larger proportions on the non-practising Register than on the practising Register. Thus, any alarm felt at losing practising pharmaci sts from the labour market at a time when the profession is being affected by workforce shortages needs to be tempered by the knowledge that most leavers were not contributing significantly to the labour market anyway, and by the revelation that the number of new entrants continues to grow. The gap between numbers of male and female pharmacists continues to widen. Just over 54 per cent of the whole register, and 56 per cent of the practising section of the register is now made up of women. A bigger loss in the numbers of male pharmacists leaving the Register and a bigger increase in the number of women among new entrants contribute to the continuing feminisation of the pharmacy profession in Britain.