Germany: demographic ageing influences absenteeism’s growth

An increase influenced by the demographic factor. The traditional absenteeism equations, “fear of loosing your job = lower absenteeism rates” and, conversely, “economic growth = increasing absenteeism” apparently no longer apply to the evolution of the absenteeism curve in Germany. After a constant decrease in sick leave days between 1975 and 2006, Germany has been seeing absenteeism unrelentingly go up since 2006. That year, a 3.3% absenteeism limit was reached (5.3% in 1975). Since then, it has been going back up regardless of the economic situation in the country. In 2009, it amounted to 4.8%, following 4.6% in 2008, i.e. 17.3 sick days in average. Over the first 2010 quarter, the trend continued with a 10% increase compared with the first 2009 quarter. This is what comes out of the statistics published by the health insurance and the study carried out by the AOK’s research institute (biggest health insurance fund in Germany with 25 million members),Wido, together with the Bielefeld University. The researchers think this trend is clearly due to demographic ageing among German employees. Jochen Pimpertz, expert on social issues at the German Economic Institute (IW) said that this demographic “turn” had to appear in statistics someday. However, he doesn’t think the increase is going to go faster, especially with businesses’ increasing efforts to protect their employees’ health. Besides, statistics show that, while older workers’ sick leaves are, in average, longer, they are usually sick less often than their younger colleagues.