Pharmacists: Jobs in Demand in Europe (2025)

Pharmacists is an official occupation group (ISCO-08 code 2262) used by the International Labour Organization and Eurostat.

  • Dispensing chemist
  • Hospital pharmacist
  • Industrial pharmacist
  • Retail pharmacist
13European countries report a shortage (EURES 2025)
4countries report a surplus
768open job ads right now in Germany and Sweden
2262ISCO-08 occupation code
Short answerIn the 2025 EURES report on labour shortages, 13 European countries reported a shortage of pharmacists: Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain. 4 reported a surplus: Austria, Czechia, Finland and Latvia.

Pay in Germany for this job

€5,404median gross pay a month, full-time
€4,443 to €6,376middle half of workers (25% to 75%)
20,260full-time employees counted

German occupation used: Apotheker/in (Pharmacist), occupation code KldB 2010 81804. This is a national figure for all of Germany, before tax and social contributions, including extras such as holiday and Christmas pay.

Source: Bundesagentur für Arbeit, Entgeltatlas (employment statistics), reference date 31 December 2025. Full-time employees subject to social insurance only; civil servants, self-employed people and apprentices are not included. Retrieved 2026-10-13.

Check pay by region, age and gender in the Entgeltatlas

Pay in the UK for this job

£53,772median gross pay a year, full-time
£1,013median gross pay a week, full-time
48,000full-time jobs (ONS estimate)

UK occupation used: Pharmacists (SOC 2020 code 2251). Placeivo matched this to ISCO-08 2262 by job title and duties; the UK and international occupation lists do not line up exactly. National figure for the whole United Kingdom, in pounds sterling (GBP), before income tax and National Insurance.

Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2025 provisional, Table 14 (occupation by 4-digit SOC 2020): tables 14.7a (annual pay, gross) and 14.1a (weekly pay, gross), full-time employee jobs, United Kingdom. Weekly pay is for April 2025; annual pay is for the tax year ending 5 April 2025, employees in the same job for at least a year. Retrieved 2026-10-13.

See the ONS earnings tables by occupation

UK Skilled Worker visa for this job

EligibleGOV.UK level: Higher Skilled
Pay scalegoing rate follows national pay scales

This occupation (UK code 2251, Pharmacists) is on the UK list of jobs eligible for the Skilled Worker visa. There is no figure in the general going-rate table: GOV.UK has separate salary rules for healthcare and education jobs, based on national pay scales (for example NHS pay bands), so the general minimum of £41,700 may not apply. Check the GOV.UK page for healthcare and education jobs. Placeivo matched this UK code to ISCO-08 2262 by job title; the lists do not line up exactly.

This is a summary of official rules, not legal advice. Rules change and some people (for example those already on a Skilled Worker visa) have different rules. Always check GOV.UK before you apply.

Source: UK Visas and Immigration, GOV.UK tables "Skilled Worker visa: eligible occupations and codes" and "Skilled Worker visa: going rates for eligible occupation codes", updated 2025-07-22, retrieved 2026-10-15. General minimum salary from GOV.UK "Skilled Worker visa: Your job", checked 2026-10-15.

Compare UK visa going rates by job · Eligible occupations (GOV.UK) · Going rates (GOV.UK) · Healthcare and education rules (GOV.UK) · Salary rules (GOV.UK)

Latest pharmacists job ads

Real vacancies from the official public employment services, updated daily. Job titles are translated into English automatically; the full ad opens on the official site in German or Swedish (your browser's translate button turns it into English).

Germany

592 open ads
  • Pharmacist
    German title: Apotheker
    tw.con. GmbH · Bonn · Posted 2026-10-19
  • Pharmacist
    German title: Apotheker
    tw.con. GmbH · Naundorf bei Oschatz · Posted 2026-10-18
  • Pharmacist
    German title: Apotheker
    Hengst Apotheke Am Berliner Platz e.K., Inh. Tobias Hengst · Posted 2026-10-15
  • Pharmacist
    German title: Apotheker
    Landschaftsverband Westfalen- Lippe - LWL-Klinik Lippstadt · Warstein · Posted 2026-10-15
  • Pharmacist
    German title: Apotheker
    tw.con. GmbH · Bonn · Posted 2026-10-12
  • Pharmacist
    German title: Apotheker
    Sonnen-Apotheke Inh. Mike Beyer e.K. · Teltow · Posted 2026-10-12

Source: Bundesagentur für Arbeit (German Federal Employment Agency). Ads are written by employers; Placeivo does not check them. See all ads in Germany

Sweden

176 open ads

Source: Arbetsförmedlingen (Swedish Public Employment Service). Ads are written by employers; Placeivo does not check them. See all ads in Sweden

Where pharmacists are needed in Europe

CountryEURES 2025Average gross pay, all professionals (2022)1-bed rent in the capital
BelgiumShortage€5,370 a month *Brussels: €1,150
BulgariaShortage€1,367 a monthSofia: €650
DenmarkShortage€5,925 a month *Copenhagen: €1,800
EstoniaShortage€2,262 a monthTallinn: €720
FranceShortage€4,118 a month *Paris: €1,550
GermanyShortage€5,270 a monthBerlin: €1,350
GreeceShortage€1,904 a month *Athens: €1,150
ItalyShortage€3,172 a month *Rome: €1,300
NetherlandsShortage€4,726 a monthNot yet verified
PortugalShortage€2,323 a month *Lisbon: €1,400
RomaniaShortage€1,991 a month *Not yet verified
SloveniaShortage€2,727 a monthLjubljana: €950
SpainShortage€3,085 a monthMadrid: €1,300
AustriaSurplus€4,602 a month *Vienna: €1,250
CzechiaSurplus€2,276 a monthPrague: €1,250
FinlandSurplus€4,673 a month *Helsinki: €1,150
LatviaSurplus€2,136 a monthRiga: €870

Pay: Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey 2022, mean gross monthly earnings of all professionals in each country, in euros. This is the average for the whole occupation group, not for pharmacists alone, and before tax. * Firms with 10 or more employees only. Rent: Eurostat, good-quality 1-bedroom flat in the capital, 2025.

What pharmacists do

Pharmacists store, preserve, compound, and dispense medicinal products and counsel on the proper use and adverse effects of drugs and medicines following prescriptions issued by medical doctors and other health professionals. They contribute to researching, testing, preparing, prescribing and monitoring medicinal therapies for optimizing human health.

Typical tasks

  • 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
  • Preparing or supervising the preparation and labelling of liquid medicines, ointments, powders, tablets and other medications to fill prescriptions
  • Providing information and advice to prescribers and clients regarding drug interactions, incompatibility and contraindications, side effects, dosage and proper medication storage
  • 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
  • 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
  • Advising clients on and supplying non-prescription medicines and diagnostic and therapeutic aids for common conditions
  • Supervising and coordinating the work of pharmacy technicians, pharmacy interns and pharmacy sales assistants
  • Conducting research to develop and improve pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and related chemical products
  • Conferring with chemists, engineering professionals and other professionals about manufacturing techniques and ingredients
  • Testing and analysing drugs to determine their identity, purity and strength in relation to specified standards
  • Evaluating labels, packaging and advertising of drug products
  • Developing information and risks of particular drugs

Finding pharmacists jobs in Europe

  • EURES is the official job portal of the EU public employment services. The search above looks for "Retail pharmacist".
  • Some jobs are regulated professions: before you can work, your qualification may need to be recognised in the new country.
  • If you are not an EU/EEA citizen you will usually need a work permit or a visa such as the EU Blue Card. Check the rules of the country's immigration authority.

Cost of living where the jobs are

Take-home pay needed to rent a good 1-bedroom flat in the capitals of countries reporting a shortage:

About this data

  • Shortage and surplus: European Labour Authority, EURES Report on labour shortages and surpluses 2025, annex table 21 (published 2026). Each country's public employment service reports which occupations it finds hard to fill or in oversupply. Countries not listed did not report this occupation as either.
  • Definition, tasks and job titles: International Labour Organization, ISCO-08 structure and definitions.
  • Pay: Eurostat, Structure of Earnings Survey 2022 (earn_ses22_48), by occupation group. Germany, this exact job: Bundesagentur für Arbeit, Entgeltatlas (median pay of full-time employees). United Kingdom, closest UK occupation: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14 (median pay of full-time employees).
  • Job ads: Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Germany) and Arbetsförmedlingen (Sweden), refreshed about once a day.

See all jobs in demand in Europe · Methodology