Spaces in many offices and factories recently remained empty because employees were not healthy. What was the situation in the first months of 2024?
According to an evaluation by the health insurance company DAK-Gesundheit, absences from work due to illness remained at a high level at the beginning of the year. From January to the end of March, 38 percent of employees were absent from sick leave at least once, as the health insurance company reported based on its own insured data.
At 5.8 percent, the sickness rate was only 0.1 percentage points below the peak in the first quarter of 2023. On every day of the first three months of 2024, an average of 58 out of 1,000 employees were on sick leave, as the editorial network Germany previously reported.
Treasurer Andreas Storm said: “There is no all-clear in sight when it comes to sick leave in Germany.” After record values in 2022 and 2023, high default rates would have consolidated in the first quarter of 2024. According to the analysis, 59 percent of people under 20 had at least one sick note, with a case lasting an average of 4.4 days. Of those over 60, 33 percent had a sick note, with an average of 18 days per case. A good quarter of the days missed were due to colds and other respiratory diseases. Data from 2.2 million DAK-insured employees were evaluated.
Source: Stern
