Pharmacy Technician Jobs In SoCal And Southern California

Various pharmacy technician jobs and positions in Southern California are currently available and the total number of open employment opportunities for pharmacy techs has been steadily on the rise so far in 2022. Sometimes referred to as SoCal, Southern California is currently experiencing the same shortage of  pharmacy technicians that's being seen throughout California, and basically throughout each state in the nation.

According to Forbes Magazine, job opportunities for all medical professionals are currently rising exponentially nationwide. Yet many medical experts view the pharmacy staffing shortage as the most critical and immediate concern that the US Healthcare System is currently facing. Being the most accessible healthcare workers available to the general public, the pharmacy staff usually acts as the first "touchpoint" for patients engaging with our healthcare system, and the pharmacy technicians are therefor, initially the first healthcare member to be approached and spoken to.

Yet as necessary as pharmacy technicians are for the US Healthcare system, the National Community Pharmacists Association's (NCPA) 2021 economic health report revealed that a shocking eighty-eight percent (88%) of all retail pharmacies nationwide reported that pharmacy technicians are the most difficult pharmacy job position to currently fill. Many workforce experts agree that pharmacy technicians were perhaps among the jobs most affected by the COVID pandemic regarding the area of "employee burnout" and many simply left the workforce feeling underpaid, overworked and too stressed out to continue working in retail pharmacy settings.Today's news from the chain store giant Walmart (and Sam's Club) just about sums up the situation regarding pharmacy technicians. Walmart has announced that they plan on hiring an estimated 5,000 new pharmacy technicians by the end of this year (2022). To do this, plus bolster and stabilize their current pharmacy tech retention rates, Walmart and Sam's Club are increasing the average hourly wages for their current 36,000 pharmacy technicians this week. This means that the existing technicians will be averaging over $20/hour, as it must be noted that this is the second time in less than a year that Walmart has given all of their techs a raise (the previous time was a raise in August of last year). In an attempt to attract new techs, a spokesman for the retailing giant stated that their starting pay for pharmacy techs will remain the same (ranging from $15 to $22.50/hour, with certified technicians starting at $16.50/hour and higher), but that the company is introducing a "progressive wage model" that will add up to $4 per hour to a pharmacy tech's starting base pay over four years. Under the plan, every new starting pharmacy technician will get a raise every six months for their first two years with Walmart.

What Comprises Southern California?

Southern California, commonly shortened and referred to as SoCal by many of the state's residents, is the part of California where over half of the state's resident's live. From San Diego up to Los Angeles, nearly 23 million (22,680,010) people reside, vs the almost 40 million (39,538,223) people living in the entire state. This area includes not only San Diego (the 8th largest city in the US with 1.4 million people) and Los Angeles (the 2nd largest city in the nation with 3.9 million people), but also includes an additional 62 cities of over 100,000 people (with fourteen having more than 200,000 residents each).  SoCal also encompasses the counties of Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange, which are each in the top fifteen most populous counties in the entire USA.As well as Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California includes noteworthy cities such as Sacramento (California's Capital City), Hollywood, Pasadena, Palm Springs, Burbank, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, Irvine, Corona, Long Beach, Inglewood, and Glendale. The Southern California coast has always been famous for its beaches, and some the more popular include Laguna Beach, Malibu, La Jolla, and Hermosa Beach.

How Many Pharmacy Tech Jobs are there in Southern California?

Over one-half of California's estimated fifty-six hundred (5,600) retail pharmacy operations are located in SoCal, or Southern California. As the state with the most pharmacies, California also has the highest total of pharmacy tech jobs, with an estimated total of almost forty thousand technician jobs (38,220) throughout the entire state according to the most recent numbers from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (Occupational Employment and Wages Report, May 2021). The report also documented that the SoCal region is one of the top paying metropolitan areas in the country for pharmacy techs (with an annual average salary of $49,990). The steady demand for pharmacy technicians in SoCal will only continue to increase according to a recent article published in Pharmacy Times and is due to the growing expansion of the pharmaceutical industry in SoCal, along with the rising demand in the use of prescription drugs by an "aging" community.There are no "official and up-to-date" estimates that could be found for the total number of open positions available today for pharmacy techs in Southern California. However, a search today on the Indeed.com website (considered to be the largest and most often used job listing website in the US) lists 4,264 open job positions available when a search was performed for "Pharmacy Technician Southern California". These open tech jobs encompass all types of pharmacy settings, including retail community pharmacies, chain store and grocery pharmacies, as well as institutions, clinics, hospital pharmacies and specialty pharmacies (such as compounding pharmacies, IV infusion pharmacies and mail-order pharmacy operations).

Are you a Pharmacy Technician Looking for a Job in SoCal?

Whether you're a Pharmacy Technician currently living in Southern California that's looking for a new job, or a Pharmacy Tech whose planning on moving to the SoCal area in the immediate or near future (and are currently in the "planning phase" of your transition), we strongly urge you to contact us here at Healthcare Consultants Pharmacy Staffing (HCC) today.  HCC is a nationally renowned pharmacy staffing company that has been a leader in matching qualified pharmacy technician candidates to the right job and employer in all fifty states since 1989. Pharmacy staffing has been our primary business now for over three decades.Headquartered in Central Florida, HCC has an in-house team of trained consultants that can help assist registered pharmacy techs to find a job that matches their skills and experience, plus fits their lifestyle and needs. Call us at (800) 642-1652 or click here now to let us know your availability and a pharmacy staffing expert will get right back to you to discuss which potential job opportunities best match your skills, needs, and lifestyle requirements. Rest assured that Healthcare Consultants Pharmacy Staffing is a part of your team, helping you find the RIGHT pharmacy technician job in Southern California!