Sickness absence in central government 2020

Under its appropriation directions, Statskontoret has to compile and report information about sickness absence in agencies by 14 May 2021. Statskontoret has to report this information according to Chapter 7, Section 3 of the Annual Reports and Budget Documentation Ordinance (SFS 2000:605).

On average, sickness absence in government agencies was 3.9% of regular working time in 2020. This means that it has increased compared with 2019, when it was 3.8%. The increase is relatively small, but is still a trend break. Previously absence had deceased in three successive years until and including 2019.

Long-term absence (more than 60 days) as a share of total sickness absence was 45.9% in 2020. It has decreased compared with 2019, when it was 51.3%.

As a percentage of the group’s regular working time, sickness absence was 4.9% for women and 2.9% for men. Sickness absence has decreased for women (0.1 percentage points) but increased for men (0.4 percentage points) compared with 2019.

Sickness absence for employees in age groups under 30 years was 3.1% of the group’s total regular working time. In the 30–49 age group it was 3.8% and in the 50+ age group it was 4.3%. This means that sickness absence has increased by 0.2 percentage points for the youngest and middle-aged employees but decreased by 0.1 percentage points for the oldest employees.

We can compare sickness absence in 2020 with the preceding year for all 201 agencies included in the survey. 138 (69%) of them had lower or unchanged sickness absence in 2020 compared with 2019, while 63 (31%) had higher sickness absence in 2020 than in 2019.