Overall, the proportion of women in the pharmaceutical industry is 45 percent.
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Berlin At the beginning of the week, Andrea Nahles made it clear what she considers the best remedy for the shortage of skilled workers. Women are an “indispensable lever,” said the head of the Federal Employment Agency (BA). One industry is already particularly advanced, as shown by a study by the Institute of German Economics (IW) in Cologne, which is available exclusively to the Handelsblatt.
In pharmaceutical professions, it says, the job boom of recent years was “driven largely by women”. In concrete terms, almost 278,000 employees worked in the core professions of the industry in 2021, around 20,000 more than in 2013 – 80 percent of these additional jobs were for women.
The core professions include chemical and pharmaceutical technicians and pharmacists in industry, but also in pharmaceutical wholesale, in pharmacies and in the healthcare sector.
This clearly sets the industry apart from others. On average across all occupations, the increase in employment since 2013 is attributable to only 11 percent full-time women and 39 percent part-time, according to the IW analysis. In the pharmaceutical professions, on the other hand, it was 46 percent full-time and 34 percent part-time. Overall, the proportion of women in the industry is 45 percent.
“Due to this development, pharmaceutical companies have so far been able to cushion the shortage of skilled workers comparatively well – in contrast to other industries,” says study author and IW researcher Lydia Malin. A study by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) in January showed that more than every second company can no longer fill all vacancies. That would cost Germany 100 billion euros in added value. According to the Federal Employment Agency, there are currently 778,000 vacancies.
A large part of this is accounted for by female-dominated sectors, such as social and healthcare professions. This includes the professional group of social work and social pedagogy as well as care for the elderly and the sick. However, there is also a lack of skilled workers in occupations with a high proportion of men, such as in sanitary, heating and air-conditioning technology. These are indispensable for a successful energy and climate transition, for example through the installation of solar systems or the optimization of heating systems. Things are also looking bleak in the IT industry.
No sign of a shortage of skilled workers
According to the IW, only around 1,000 positions were vacant in the pharmaceutical professions last year. “This is also due to the fact that companies in core pharmaceutical professions have created a particularly good working environment for women,” says expert Malin. This is a role model for other industries.
The study states that companies plagued by a shortage of skilled workers are increasingly relying on instruments “that already seem to have proven themselves in the pharmaceutical industry”. Not only attractive salaries and social benefits would therefore speak for a job in the pharmaceutical industry.
The authors write that pharmaceutical companies have been using flexible working time models and childcare support for years. In addition, the companies created suitable framework conditions for parents to return to work “in order to meet the desire of many for a better work-life balance”.
This is probably also the reason for the comparatively high proportion of women working full-time in pharmaceutical professions, which totals 31 percent. Across all sectors, it is only around 23 percent, which is also a problem in the eyes of BA boss Nahles. Women would often limit their working hours in order to care for their children or relatives.
Read more about the shortage of workers and skilled workers here
According to the IW, a large number of pharmaceutical companies are also striving for gender parity in the medium term – at all qualification levels. In 2021, 56 percent of employees with a master’s or diploma degree were already female. At the specialist level with a bachelor’s degree, it was at least 53 percent. The proportion of women was only 41 percent at skilled worker level with completed vocational training.
So far, however, the balanced gender ratio has been less reflected in top management positions, even if the difference is slowly narrowing. In the pharmaceutical industry, for example, around every fifth top manager is a woman; according to the IW study, the proportion was 15 percent in 2015. The pharmaceutical industry – like others – still has to catch up here.
More: Pharmaceutical companies are threatening job cuts