Absenteeism & Sickness Absence Benchmarks
Absence rate · Private sector, US
Definition: all full-time wage and salary workers in the relevant sector/segment in the reference week; numerator: workers with qualifying absences in that same sector/segment (BLS CPS definition; usually at least 35 hours per week, worked fewer than 35 for specified reasons)
View leave by type and period, and attendance by day or hour. Check your employee group, dates and scheduled-work definition before comparing benchmarks.
Explore Zoho PeopleBased on official documentation; HRRef has not tested Zoho People. Validate your measurement definition before comparing benchmarks.
Sources and reporting details
Zoho People is one option for maintaining the records behind internal absence monitoring. Its documented leave reports let you view leave by type and period, filter by department or location, and export the results. Attendance reports include day or hour views and export options. Before using any export, check the included leave types, employee group, dates and scheduled-work denominator against your chosen definition. This recommendation is based on official documentation; HRRef has not tested the product. Do not assume its standard reports reproduce BLS or ONS benchmarks.
Official documentation checked 2026-10-13.
Calculate an internal operational indicator. It is not the BLS worker-based absence rate or an automatic comparison with the national benchmarks below.
Included absence person-workdays / scheduled person-workdays for the same employees and period × 100.
Use totals for the same employees and dates. Include scheduled workdays lost to absence; exclude days when no work was scheduled.
2025 annual estimates. BLS Current Population Survey, Table 47.
The 2025 BLS annual estimates average 11 months, excluding October because data were not collected during the federal government shutdown. BLS also notes an industry-classification change; the 2025 figures are not strictly comparable with other years.
| Segment | Value | Vintage |
|---|---|---|
| Private sector, US | 3% | 2025 annual average |
| Public sector, US | 4.2% | 2025 annual average |
| Construction, US | 2.3% | 2025 annual average |
| Manufacturing, US | 2.9% | 2025 annual average |
| Retail trade, US | 3.4% | 2025 annual average |
| Financial activities, US | 2.7% | 2025 annual average |
| Health care and social assistance, US | 3.8% | 2025 annual average |
| Leisure & hospitality, US | 3.4% | 2025 annual average |
| Federal government, US | 5% | 2025 annual average |
Denominator: all full-time wage and salary workers in the relevant sector/segment in the reference week; numerator: workers with qualifying absences in that same sector/segment (BLS CPS definition; usually at least 35 hours per week, worked fewer than 35 for specified reasons)
2025. Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Different survey design and denominator than BLS — not directly comparable (F3).
| Segment | Value | Vintage |
|---|---|---|
| UK, all sectors | 2% | 2025 |
| UK, all sectors | 148.8 million days | 2025 |
| UK, all sectors | 4.4 days/worker | 2025 |
Denominator: ONS LFS-based sickness absence definition; 'official statistics in development' caveat · ONS LFS-based sickness absence definition
Source limitations and gaps are noted below.
Fixed methodology boxes — see /methodology for the full policy.
Start with a consistent definition and a record of the work that was scheduled. A leave total alone is not an absence rate.
- Choose the absences to include
For a sickness or unplanned-absence indicator, document the categories you include and keep vacation and holidays separate. Paid or unpaid status is a payroll classification; it does not by itself identify sickness or unplanned absence. - Keep the same employees and period
Count scheduled person-workdays across the same employees and dates as your absence records, including the workdays lost to those absences. Exclude days when no work was scheduled. Use the schedule that applied before the absence, rather than days actually worked. - Handle partial days consistently
For this day-based indicator, express each partial absence as a fraction of that employee’s scheduled workday. A person-workday is one scheduled day for one employee. If shift lengths differ and you need a measure of lost time, use absent hours and scheduled hours instead; label it as a different indicator. - Check the benchmark definition
Before comparing externally, match the absence reasons, employee population, period and unit. The internal days calculation here is for your own trend tracking; it does not establish comparability with BLS or ONS.
BLS absence rate counts full-time wage and salary workers with qualifying absences as a share of all full-time wage and salary workers in the same sector or segment in the reference week. Qualifying absences concern people who usually work at least 35 hours per week but worked fewer than 35 hours for the reasons specified by BLS. Vacation, personal days and holidays are excluded. BLS lost worktime rate is a separate hours-based measure.
Definition source: BLS CPS Table 47, footnotes.