The line graph provides information about the amount of employees from five different European nations who avoided work for one or more days between 1991 and 2001 because of sickness.
Overall, Germany has had the lowest and most stable trend in worker absences over the last 10 years, whereas the Netherlands has the highest rate. The UK and Germany both went in the same direction. In addition, there were variations in France, Sweden, and the Netherlands throughout the specified time range.
In 1991, illness caused 5% of workers in the Netherlands and France to miss work for a day or longer. In the Netherlands and France, the proportion of employees who had taken sick leave had decreased to little over 3% and 4%, respectively, by 1996. In France, this number steadied at about 3% during the ensuing years, but in the Netherlands, the proportion of employees who used sick days increased again, reaching about 5.5% in 2001.
On the other hand, Sweden observed an increase in the number of employees taking sick days from 3% in 1991 to over 4.5% in 2001. Furthermore, the percentage of employees in Germany who took sick days stayed at less than 2% for the whole period, whilst the UK’s rate stayed just around 2%.