Labor market: Study: Women fill gaps in the craft

According to a study, women play an important role with a view to the shortage of skilled workers. Accordingly, these are much more busy than masters today and go more into professions in which specialists are rare. This is shown by an analysis of the competence center Safety Security (Kofa) of the employer -related institute of the German Economy (IW) in Cologne.

Women made an important contribution to securing skilled workers in craft professions, wrote the authors Lydia Malin and Helen Hickmann in the study. From July 2023 to June 2024, almost 2.6 million employees worked in craft professions – 2.7 percent less than in 2013. While the number of journeyman’s fellows declined in recent years, those of the employees have increased.

“Safety of skilled workers thanks to women”

This increase in employment is only due to women, the study says. Their part among the masters and masters rose from 13.3 percent in 2013 to 17.1 percent. The number of men employed at master level, on the other hand, remained constant in the same period. According to the investigation, the largest percentage increase was shown by the masters of medical, orthopedic and rehabilitation technology, which are among the professions with a shortage of skilled workers.

In general, according to the study, it can be observed that women are increasingly striving for professions with a shortage of skilled workers: While the number of female employees in craft professions without a specialist bottleneck has decreased significantly since 2013 (-14.6 percent), this increased by 18 percent in professions with a permanent bottleneck. The number of men in the bottleneck professions, on the other hand, hardly changed in time.

CoFa for challenges in the craft