Skilled Worker Shortage? Why Women Are Now Becoming an Opportunity for Companies

In Düsseldorf, a networking event aims to bring women and companies together—with a very concrete goal: to make greater use of career changers, re-entrants, reorientation, and training for securing skilled workers. The approach is aimed not only at potential female applicants, but also at companies that need to structure their working conditions and career paths so that skilled workers are not only recruited but also retained.

The working group “Strengthening Women’s Employment” invites you to the event “Company Seeks Woman: Talking Together, Learning from Each Other—Women Change the Economy” on June 11, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Career Information Center (BIZ) of the Düsseldorf Employment Agency (Grafenberger Allee 300, 40237 Düsseldorf). The planned format will allow women and employers to talk directly—right where bottlenecks are intensifying in many industries: in filling open positions and in the question of what framework conditions are necessary to make employment realistic in everyday life.

A Networking Format with a Clear Labor Market Focus

Behind the working group in Düsseldorf are several institutions from the labor market, business, and interest representation, including the Employment Agency, Job Center, Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Chamber of Crafts, DGB, the City of Düsseldorf, Competentia DUS|ME, as well as the Düsseldorf Entrepreneurs’ Association and surrounding area. This bundling is more than just an organizational detail: it shows that securing skilled workers is no longer seen as just a personnel issue for individual companies, but as a regional location issue—with interfaces to qualification, equality, and working conditions.

Sigrid Wolf, DGB Chairwoman and head of the working group, describes the aim as follows: “That’s where the event ‘Company Seeks Woman’ comes in. It is intended to provide a platform for companies and women to engage in mutual exchange at eye level and to network with employers. We bring both sides together and into conversation. Whether career change, re-entry, reorientation, or training—women can find out how they can develop further and/or break into exciting new professional fields.”

The fact that the organizers tailor the exchange so strongly to transitions in working life fits the situation in the labor market: In the DIHK Skilled Worker Report 2025/2026, around 36 percent of the companies surveyed report that they are at least partially unable to fill open positions. As countermeasures, companies mention, among other things, higher employment of women—not as symbolic politics, but as a tangible potential to close gaps in teams, workshops, offices, and social services.

Companies Seek Staff, Women Seek Suitable Framework Conditions

The Düsseldorf approach does not stop at recruitment. It addresses the reasons why existing potential often does not translate into employment in practice. Cited are inflexible working hours and poor pay—factors that weigh particularly heavily when employment must be coordinated with family and care work or when a return to work after a longer break fails due to lack of planning ability.

There is also a structural finding that underscores the economic dimension: According to the Federal Statistical Office, the unadjusted gender pay gap in Germany in 2025 was 16 percent; women earned an average gross hourly wage of 22.81 euros, men 27.05 euros. For companies, this is not just an equality indicator, but a signal regarding employer attractiveness: those who want to attract skilled workers must offer comprehensible development paths, transparent salary structures, and real prospects—otherwise, positions remain unfilled or turnover increases.

Research from the German Economic Institute (KOFA/IW) also points in this direction: Women are seen there as key to securing skilled workers, especially through re-entry and career change paths. What is crucial is that qualifications are actually used on the job—not wasted in “underqualified” activities—and that further training and clear career paths make the transition into skilled positions realistic. This is exactly where a networking format can have an impact: It creates contact, lowers information barriers, and at the same time confronts companies with the expectation to concretely improve framework conditions.

Among the announced participating companies is Schulz & Sohn GmbH. Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer Mark Sethe says: “Equality and diversity are not special topics for us, but self-evident aspects of modern corporate management. Economic success arises where people are given fair opportunities, take on responsibility, and can contribute their perspectives. Greater participation in working life is, in our view, an important prerequisite for prosperity, growth, and future viability, especially in medium-sized businesses.”

Fabian Düesmann Larocque, Head of People & Culture, places the topic beyond classic career paths: “Many career paths today are no longer linear. But it is precisely in this that valuable experiences and perspectives often lie. We want to encourage people to seize opportunities, develop further, and find their place in the company—regardless of whether it’s about starting a career, returning to work, or new professional paths.”

What Participants Can Expect in Düsseldorf

• 10:00 a.m.: Check-in
• 10:30 a.m.: Opening by the Düsseldorf Taskforce for Work
• 10:35 a.m.: Welcome by Birgitta Kubsch-von Harten (Chairwoman of the Management Board of the Employment Agency)
• 10:45 a.m.: Keynote by Dr. Lydia Malin (German Economic Institute Cologne)
• 11:00 a.m.: Panel discussion “Career Change: Dead End or Career Booster?”
• 11:30 a.m.: Presentation of the attending companies
• 11:45 a.m.: Break with snacks
• 12:00 p.m.: Round tables at topic tables
• 1:00 p.m.: Come Together at the booths
• 1:40 p.m.: Presentation of results and raffle of a business photo shoot
• 2:00 p.m.: End of the event

Participation is free of charge for women. Childcare will be offered if needed—a point that can be decisive in practice as to whether such offers are actually accessible for returnees and mothers or exist only on paper. This is precisely where the labor market policy relevance lies: not just informing, but enabling participation.

Organizationally, the offer is also designed for direct encounters. The Career Information Center of the Employment Agency can be reached by public transport via the Schlüterstraße/Arbeitsagentur stop (lines U72, U73, U83, 709 as well as bus lines 725, 733, and 810). Parking is available at the back of the agency building on Ivo-Beucker-Straße and in the residential area around the agency.

The Düsseldorf event relies on a practical labor market format instead of abstract debates. Whether concrete employment opportunities arise from this ultimately depends on two sides of the same equation: the willingness of women to take new paths—and the ability of companies to offer working conditions that make these paths sustainable in the long term.