Which employees take the most time off work through sickness? Writing in the latest
issue of the Economic Journal, Tim Barmby, Marco Ercolani and John Treble
present the first fully comparable data about worker absence across countries. Their
analysis of patterns of absenteeism in nine countries – Canada, the Czech Republic,
France, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK – reveals that:
?? There are wide national variations in average rates of absence, from a low of 1.26%
in Luxembourg to a high of 8.42% in Sweden. Sweden’s rate is particularly high,
perhaps because of a generous system of sick pay. France’s sick pay system is
also very generous but the country’s absence rate is low. The UK’s regulated rates
of sick pay are very small relative to both countries, but its absence rate lies
between the two.
?? Despite these differences in average levels, patterns of absence according to age
and sex are very similar in all these economies. For example, male absenteeism is
generally lower than female.
?? Single men have the lowest absence rates while married women have the highest
absence rates. Explanations are likely to involve the relationship between household
and paid work and the differing structure of temporary and permanent work
contracts.
?? For the most part, the older the age group, the higher the rate of absence (the one
exception being declining absence rates for men until their mid-20s). What’s more,
the difference between male and female absence rates increases with age.
?? In several countries, heavy manufacturing industries have the highest absence
rates. This may be partially attributable to higher risks in these industries of direct
injury and exposure to factors leading to illness. Overall, the sector with the highest
absence rate is ‘health and social services’, while the sector with the lowest
absence rate is ‘financial and related services’.
?? Lower sickness absence is associated with occupations with a higher degree of
responsibility in the workplace.
?? Employees with longer tenure have higher absence rates. Possible explanations
include a job security effect (employees believe their jobs to be secure and the cost
of absence accordingly lower); and the fact that tenure is naturally correlated with
age and sickness absence increases with age.
?? Absence rates are higher with higher usual hours of work.
Until now, it has been widely assumed that the extent of worker absenteeism varies
considerably across countries and industries, between occupations and sexes, and with
age. But it has not been at all well documented. These researchers have developed a
technique to extract the first internationally comparable absenteeism data, using the
widely available Labour Force Surveys.
Analysis of this kind is of particular importance because the costs of absenteeism in
modern economies is reckoned to be very high. The CBI reports annual figures that
have not recently been below £10 billion per year.
It is also suspected that not all absence is unavoidable, although estimates of the size
of this effect are few and far between. If this is true, then if small reductions in avoidable
absence can be made, large reductions in industrial costs could follow.
ENDS
Notes for Editors: ‘Sickness Absence: An International Comparison’ by Tim Barmby,
Marco Ercolani and John Treble is published in the June 2002 issue of the Economic
Journal.
Barmby is at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne; Ercolani is at the University of
Essex; and Treble is at the University of Wales, Bangor, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2DG.
For Further Information: contact RES Media Consultant Romesh Vaitilingam on 0117-
983-9770 or 07768-661095 (email: romesh@compuserve.com); or Professor John
Treble via email: j.g.treble@bangor.ac.uk.