Worker sick leave figures fell further in the first quarter

Employee absenteeism due to illness was 5.5 percent in the first quarter of 2024, down from 5.7 percent a year earlier. In the first quarter of 2023, employee absenteeism was also lower than the year before. “That decline has continued,” Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported on Friday.

Because illness absenteeism has seasonal effects - more people get sick in the winter - CBS compares figures not with consecutive quarters but with the same quarters in previous years. An absenteeism rate of 5.5 percent means that out of every 1,000 work days, 55 were missed due to illness.

Illness absenteeism is starting to fall after the pandemic but was still high in 2023 at 5.3 percent throughout the year. Since CBS started tracking this figure in 1996, there have been only five years with a higher absenteeism rate, including the record year 2022 (5.6 percent).

In the first quarter of 2024, absenteeism was the highest in the health and welfare sector at 7.8 percent and the lowest in the catering industry at 3.5 percent. “The catering industry had the lowest absenteeism rate for a long time, but during the coronavirus period, absenteeism increased rapidly.” This is the first time since 2020 that the catering industry is back at the bottom of hte list.

The decrease in illness absenteeism occurred in almost all sectors. The only notable exception was the financial services, where absenteeism was relatively low in recent years. In the first quarter of this year, the absenteeism rate was 4 percent, compared to 3.4 percent a year earlier.