Attendance · Absence

Absenteeism & Sickness Absence Benchmarks

Data vintage: 2025 annual average; 2025; 2009K1-2026K1·Retrieved 2026-07-26·Sources verified
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Absence Rate Calculator

US CPS-definition calculator — compares only against US BLS segments. Never compare this figure directly to the UK/EU figures below without adjusting for denominator differences (F3).

Absence Rate Calculator
Benchmark Table · United States
Absence Rate by Sector (BLS CPS)

2025 annual average. BLS Current Population Survey, Table 47.

SegmentValueVintage
Private sector, US3%2025 annual average
Public sector, US4.2%2025 annual average
Construction, US2.3%2025 annual average
Manufacturing, US2.9%2025 annual average
Retail trade, US3.4%2025 annual average
Financial activities, US2.7%2025 annual average
Health care, US3.8%2025 annual average
Leisure & hospitality, US3.4%2025 annual average
Federal government, US5%2025 annual average

Denominator: employed full-time wage and salary workers absent from work in reference week (CPS definition)

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey (Table 47)
Benchmark Table · United Kingdom
Sickness Absence (ONS)

2025. Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Different survey design and denominator than BLS — not directly comparable (F3).

SegmentValueVintage
UK, all sectors2%2025
UK, all sectors148.8 million days2025
UK, all sectors4.4 days/worker2025

Denominator: ONS LFS-based sickness absence definition; 'official statistics in development' caveat · ONS LFS-based sickness absence definition

Source: Office for National Statistics, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
Gap honesty
EU & Nordic Systems: Pointers, Not Comparable Figures

Where no verifiable open benchmark exists, we say so — instead of publishing a number that doesn’t hold up.

Absence from work (quarterly series pointer) — EU (LFS-based)
Eurostat lfsi_abt_q: quarterly absence series, 2009Q1–2026Q1 (LFS-based). A 2021 series break (IESS) is confirmed in the metadata. Source pointer only — no single comparable figure is published on hrref in this edition.
Source: Eurostat, lfsi_abt_q · 2009K1-2026K1
Sickness absence (source pointer) — Norway
SSB StatBank sickness-absence tables 12452 (sex + occupation) and 14341 (region + sex); neither table has an age dimension. Source pointer only — no comparable figures are published on hrref in this edition.
Source: Statistisk sentralbyrå (SSB), StatBank · n/a
Absence (source pointer) — Denmark
DST StatBank absence tables LSK11/LSK12/LSK13/LSK14/LSK15 (sex/age/sector/industry/occupation; LSK15 seasonally adjusted) via api.statbank.dk. Source pointer only — no comparable figures are published on hrref in this edition.
Source: Danmarks Statistik (DST), StatBank · n/a
Definition traps
Read This Before You Compare Numbers

Fixed methodology boxes — see /methodology for the full policy.

F3 — Absence denominators are system-specific
BLS (CPS, reference-week self-report), ONS (LFS-based, UK), Eurostat (lfsi_abt_q, LFS-based, EU), and SSB/DST (StatBank, register-based) each define “absence” and its denominator differently. They are never combined into one comparable table on this site — each system's figures are shown separately, with its own denominator stated.