International Federation of Robotics
EU employment rises to 20-year high
Employment in the European Union has reached its highest level in twenty years across all sectors: the employment rate of 15 to 64-year-olds rose to 71.7%.
At the same time, the employment gap between men and women has narrowed from almost 15% in 2005 to 10% today. However, the manufacturing industry in the EU is lagging behind this development.
"As the latest Eurostat data shows, gender equality in employment has improved overall in the European Union," says Dr. Susanne Bieller, Secretary General of the International Federation of Robotics. "However, there are still very few women employed as engineers and scientists in the manufacturing sector: Here, their share is only 22.4% - that's less than half compared to the 45.6% share in the service professions."
The European Commission explicitly highlights robotics as a key technology for innovation in the new "Competitiveness Compass". Getting women interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and exploring corresponding career opportunities is an important success factor: mixed teams of women and men drive innovation and the robotics industry offers excellent opportunities for high-quality jobs.
This is impressively demonstrated by the success stories of the ten women selected by the IFR this year as co-shapers of the future of robotics.
'IFR's 10 Women Shaping the Future of Robotics in 2025' are:
- Albane Dersy, Inbolt, France
- Ashlie Taivalkoski, Schunk, USA
- Dr. Caren Dripke, Lorch Schweißtechnik, Germany
- Julia Astrid Riemenschneider, Rethink Robotics, USA
- Kari DeSantis, Fanuc America, USA
- Kate Feng Xu, ABB Robotics, China
- Kateryna Portmann, Anybotics, Switzerland
- Susanne Nördinger, Universal Robots, Germany
- Yumie Kubota, Yaskawa Electric Corporation/AI Cube, Japan
- Yunzhi Qi, Youibot Robotics, China
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