Four percent of employees per day off sick
Sickness absence 3.9 percent in 3rd quarter 2008
- Sickness absence 4.4 percent in 2007
- Sickness absence stable since 2005
- Highest absence rates in public administration
tionAccording to figures from Statistics Netherlands’ new quarterly sickness absence statistics, absence among Dutch employees was an average 3.9 percent in the third quarter of 2008. This means that every day an average four out of every hundred workers miss work because of sickness.
With an absence rate of 4.6 percent, sickness absence was highest in non-commercial services in the third quarter of 2008. This was mainly the result of absence rates in public administration and in the health care and welfare sector. The sectors mineral extraction, agriculture and fishery, financial institutions, business services, hotels and restaurants and trade had low sickness absence rates: below 3.5 percent.
Seasonal effects usually push down sickness absence to its lowest level in the year in the third quarter. Therefore quarterly figures cannot be compared reliably with figures for a whole year. In 2007 sickness absence remained at the same level as in 2006, namely 4.4 percent. Sickness absence has remained stable since 2005. Following the introduction of the Gatekeeper Improvement Act, sickness absence fell substantially in the period 2002 to 2004; from 5.4 percent in 2002 to 4.3 percent in 2004.