Regional development
Keeping skilled workers — why the region decides
No topic occupies the Mittelstand like the lack of skilled workers. But the answer does not end at the factory gate — it reaches into the region.
25 July 2026 · 4 min read
People choose a place, not just a job
Accepting a job is also deciding on a place to live: housing, family, leisure, belonging. A good business in a region without life has it harder than a solid one in a lively region.
Securing skilled workers is therefore never only a question for the individual employer, but always one for the region too.
Why a single business cannot solve this alone
A company can pay good wages and still find no one if the infrastructure, cultural life and prospects around it are missing. These factors arise from the interplay of many — not from going it alone.
That is why it pays for businesses to think beyond their own fence: what strengthens the region strengthens them in the end.
What businesses and the region can do together
Training that stays; cooperation that shares knowledge; an environment in which culture and the economy work together — that keeps people more than any single pay rise.
Keeping skilled workers is, in the end, the same as strengthening a region: you think of businesses, people and place together.
You do not win skilled workers against the region, but with it. Strengthen the place, and you strengthen your own business.