Determining levels of unemployment anxiety among pharmacy students at Ege University

Abstract

Future young pharmacists have been reported to suffer from unemployment anxiety and despair due to numerous pharmacy faculties having been opened. This study aims to identify the level of anxiety and despair linked to unemployment perception among Pharmacy students attending Ege University as well as their thoughts on potential unemployment. The research is cross-sectional. Population comprises 691 undergraduate students studying at the Faculty of Pharmacy at Ege University. Data collection tools comprise descriptive questions and a questionnaire including "Job Anxiety Scale". The questionnaire was applied to the entire population on a voluntary basis without sampling and was answered by 402 students by self-reporting. Descriptive data were shown in frequency and percentage distributions, and Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis and post-hoc tests were conducted to determine the correlation with categorical data. Students were most anxious about the excess number of pharmacy alumni decreasing their chances of finding jobs. As the level of income dropped among the students' families (p=0.000) and as students neared their last year at university their level of unemployment anxiety increased (p=0.000). However, students with a "very good" level of academic performance (p=0.046), who lived abroad for a long time (p=0.034), who are planning to start their own business (p=0.001) have been found to have lower levels of unemployment anxiety. Our study has concluded that pharmacy students are also facing unemployment anxiety particularly because of the increasing number of pharmacy faculties and placements. In light of these conclusions, we believe that the public authority should do a planning on labour market supply together with all of the stakeholders in the pharmacy sector, and that the number of faculties and placements should be determined accordingly.