The line chart illustrates the proportion of employees in 5 distinct countries in Europe who took a sick leave from 1991 to 2001
Overall, there was a significant decrease in the percentage of workers absent due to sickness in France over the period while the figure for Sweden observed an upward trend. Those recorded in the Netherlands, however, displayed great fluctuation, making it contrast to the corresponding data for the remaining countries as they only fluctuated steadily. It is also clear that Germany had the lowest rate over the 10 years examined, while the opposite was true for the Netherlands.
There was a 2% decline in France’s workers who took sick leave, dropping from about 5% in 1991 to just below 3% in 2001. Sweden recorded a first 6-year period of relative stability at around 3%, before displaying a substantial increase to end the period at approximately 4,6%
As for the Netherlands, there was a sharp rise in its figure to a peak of around 5,6% in 1992 after starting the period at around 5%. Following that, it experienced a sharp fall, whose figures reached the bottom of 4% in 1996, with a subsequent quick recovery to end the period at around 5,3%. Additionally, while the percentage of workers taking sick days in the UK hovered slightly above 2% over the period, the figure for Germany remained at just under 2% over the entire period.