The given line chart illustrates how many people were absent from work due to illness in five European countries namely France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK from 1991 to 2001.
Overall, there was an upward trend in the number of employees with sickness absence in the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden; while the opposite was true for Germany and France. Additionally, the Netherlands came top in the list of people being off work for health issues.
Looking first at nations witnessing rises in the share of people being away from office because of sickness, the figure for the Netherlands was at 4.8%, after which, it saw dramatic fluctuations in the range from above 4% to about 5.5% in the next six years, then ended the period with a steady growth to 5.5%. Similar changes (but to a lesser extent) can be seen in Sweden’s data, with a mild variance around 3% from 1991 to 1995, followed by an intensive increase to approximately 4.5% in 2001. It is interesting to note that from being the third nation in the proportion of workers with illness absence, from 1996, Sweden had surpassed France to claim the second position. Besides, that for the UK fluctuated throughout the time frame, commencing at north of 2% and finishing at 2.5%.
Moving onto countries experiencing a converse trend, France’s percentage of employees with illness absence was 5%, then it reached a peak of 5.2% in 1992 before steadily declining to the same point as Sweden’s initial number to end the time frame. Conversely, Germany’s population figure fluctuated continuously around 1.9%. It is noticeable that Germany and the UK share the same shift throughout the period although Germany experienced downward trend and rises were seen in the UK’s figure.