Sectoral and geographic mobility of the pharmacist workforce: trends and determinants

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore sectoral and geographic migration of the pharmacist workforce and to examine the occupational and non-occupational factors associated with this mobility. This study employed quantitative analysis of unique datasets to estimate the magnitude of pharmacist workforce migration, describe its temporal patterns and investigate the role of occupational and non-occupational factors as motivators for this phenomenon. Job history data from the 2000 and 2009 National Pharmacist Workforce Survey was used to investigate sectoral and geographic migration of pharmacists between 1980 and 2009 in the first section of the study while the 5% public use sample of the 2000 Census of the Population was employed to investigate geographic migration of pharmacists between 1995 and 2000 in the second section. The magnitude and temporal patterns of sectoral and geographic migration of pharmacists between 1980 and 2009 were described using non-parametric descriptive statistics while the motivators of sectoral and geographic migration of pharmacists during this period were investigated using survival analysis. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between the odds of interstate migration and several occupational and non-occupational variables between 1995 and 2000. Out-migration of licensed pharmacists from large chain sector appeared to be greater than out-migration from independent/small chain and institutional sectors. When pharmacists migrate, they were more likely to move from their state of employment to another state within the same census region. Sectoral and geographic migration rates tended to be greater for female pharmacists compared to male pharmacists. Overall, absolute change across census regions between 1995 and 2000 advantage the south and the west regions. For pharmacists, the strongest factors related to migration were non-occupational variables such as age, having dependents and level of educational attainment. The occupational variables that were significant motivators of migration from one state to another included number of new pharmacy graduates and the change in the pharmacist per population ratio at the state level. The study concluded that state level pharmacy labor market conditions impact migration decisions and are thus a viable focus of policy interventions.