Sickness absence relatively high, but lower than Q1 2022

Sickness absence among employees was 5.7 percent in the first quarter of 2023. That is less than in same period last year (6.3 percent), but was even higher than the average of recent years, it appears figures from Statistics Netherlands.

This century, absenteeism due to illness was usually well below 5 percent in the first quarter and now above it. Absenteeism is highest in care and childcare (8.1 percent) and lowest in financial services (3.4 percent).

Within care and childcare, absenteeism is highest in the nursing, care and home care sector at 9.6 percent. In no industry was absenteeism higher in the first quarter of this year than in the same period in 2022.

Absenteeism figures are never compared with consecutive quarters, but with the same quarters from previous years due to the seasonal effect. Absenteeism is higher in winter than in summer.

There was absenteeism throughout 2022 at 5.6 percent, which means that of the thousand working days, 56 were absent. In 2021, the percentage was 4.9 percent.

According to Statistics Netherlands, such a large increase had never been measured before. This was mainly due to the increase in absenteeism in the first quarter of last year, when corona still caused a peak.

Most people who reported sick in 2022 did so because of the flu, a cold or another viral infection such as corona. Psychological complaints, overwork and burnout were also often mentioned as reasons. 12 percent of all employees say they have never been absent.