The given graph illustrates the percentage of workmen who were absent for more than a day because of illness in 5 different nations in 10 years starting from 1991.
Overall, it is obvious that the Netherlands accounted for the highest rate of ill employees being absent, while the figure for Germany stood last.
There was little difference between the figures for the UK and Germany since the number of workers taking sick leave saw a marginal fluctuation before remaining at just above and below 2% respectively throughout the given period.
In 1991, the percentage of employees claiming sick leave in France was initially as high as that of the Netherlands. However, while the former declined considerably by 1996 before reaching a plateau at around 3% in the final year, the latter, after undergoing a decrease to approximately 4%, experienced a considerable growth and peaked at 5.5% over the period. The rate of Swedish employees who had taken sick leave increased and outstripped that of French employees, reaching the peak of 5% in the final year.