32% of female engineers in Germany are planning to change jobs within the next twelve months, compared with 27% of male engineers. The average desire to change jobs in all sectors in Germany stands at 23%. This is the finding of the engineering sector report by human resource consulting firm Randstad. According to the job experts, the results indicate that women are particularly dissatisfied with their jobs or that they come up against more obstacles on their career paths. This is particularly striking in engineering, a sector with currently around 10,000 jobs vacant every year. Companies cannot afford to ignore the potential of women, yet women suffer structural disadvantages. One such structural disadvantage is cited as a more difficult negotiating position, since it is assumed that women around the age of 30 will soon be off to have children. Another disadvantage is that they often lack an extensive network of female colleagues.

Companies appear to be increasingly aware of the problem. Based on its study, ingenieur.de , for instance, reports that in some fields there is now no longer much of a pay gap between the earnings of men and women. The authors call for salaries to be calculated according to the work carried out, and not according to gender.