Band 5+: The chart below shows the results of three surveys on absenteeism in a particular European country in the years 2000, 2005 and 2010. The results show the reasons people gave for not going to work. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The given bar chart provides five major reasons for not attending work changed from 2000 to 2010.

Overall, it is evident that the figure for illness made up the highest portion in three surveys, while the most minority was seen in the stress reason.

In 2000, the percentage of illness constituted the lion’s share of 45%, followed by the value of family responsibility, at 27%. Moreover, the portion of a person’s needs, unexpected problems and stress was so low, at an average of 10%. Over the next decades, the rate of illness declined to 35%, after slight decrease to 40% in 2005, but still nearly two times higher than that of family responsibility. Similarly, the value of family responsibility saw a slight decrease to 20% in 2005 and remained unchanged to 2010.

Regarding the rising categories, the proportion of workers absent for personal needs rose dramatically to 20%, but later went down slowly to 18%. Additionally, there was a significant increase of 7% in 2005 in the value of unexpected problems and kept intact until 2010. Besides, after declining slightly to 5% in 2005, the figure for stress rose rapidly to 11% in 2010, but still three times lower than that of illness.