Archive:Weekly absences from work
Data extracted in October 2020
Planned article update: January 2021
Highlights
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To respond to the need for a more thorough analysis of the labour market situation during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Eurostat developed a new experimental indicator “Weekly absences from work”. This indicator focuses on employed persons who are temporarily absent from work in a reference week.
This article presents the main results from this new indicator and complements the article Absences from work - quarterly statistics. Both articles are part of the publication Labour market in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The current version of the article focuses on the first two quarters of 2020 (week 1 to 26). In January 2021, the article will be reviewed and data on the third quarter of the year (week 27 to 53, 2020) will be added.
Full article
Weekly absences from work spiked in April 2020
Weekly absences from work in the EU usually peak in weeks 1, 33 and 52 of the year, corresponding to early January, mid-August and late December (Figure 1). However, from the second week of March 2020 (week 11) onwards, weekly absences sharply increased as a consequence of the first confinement measures against the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic taken by the governments. In detail, weekly absences steeply increased from 13.2 to 45.4 million from early to late March 2020 (week 10 to 13). The increase continued and over the first and the second week of April 2020 (week 14 and 15), when 45.6 and 47.8 million people, respectively, were absent from their jobs. For a benchmark, the number of people absent from work in the second week of April represents more than 90 % of the previous peaks in late December 2019 (week 52, 2019) and early January 2020 (week 1, 2020), when, respectively 51.9 and 50.2 million people were absent from work.
Figure 2 compares absences from work in the EU in the first 26 weeks of 2020 with the average of the corresponding weeks in the period 2015-2019. It is visible that the number of weekly absences in January, February and early March 2020 (week 1 to 10) was similar compared with the previous years. Even though the number of absences for week 1 2020 (30th of December 2019 - 5th of January 2020) was much higher than the average over 2015-2019, it was still below the maximum (so far) for this week, which was recorded in 2015 (week 1: 50.2 million in 2020, 54.2 million in 2015).
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Source: Eurostat (lfsi_abs_w)
From the second week of March 2020 (week 11), absences from work increased substantially. In this week, the number of absent from work people was with 4.7 million more compared with the previous week (week 10, 2020) and with almost two thirds more (64.6 %) compared with the average number of absences for this week during the previous years (average 2015-2019). This growth reached much more significant dimensions by the end of the month. When every week is compared with the previous one, it is visible that in weeks 12 and 13, corresponding to mid and late March 2020, absences went up with 18.1 and 9.5 million, respectively. In April 2020, the surge of the number of absences continued, although not so rapidly as the previous two weeks, with an increase of respectively 0.2 and 2.2 million for the first and the second week of the month (week 14 and 15). In the following week (week 16), the number of absent from work people slightly declined, with 0.3 million. Nevertheless, the number of weekly absences from work was the most exceptional in comparison with the previous years in the last week of March and the first three weeks of April 2020 (weeks 13-16), when it was nearly three and a half times more than the average over 2015-2019. The gap was wider, in the first week of April 2020 (week 14), when absences from work were 45.6 million, compared with 12.5 million for this week over the previous five years.
From mid-April 2020 (week 16), absences from work took a downward path. However, their decrease was not as rapid as their increase. The reduction of weekly absences was with 4.3 million on average per week until mid-May 2020 (week 20), when they reached 26.5 million. Nevertheless, this was still around twice as the average number recorded for the 20th week of the previous half-decade, which was 11.6 million. The number of people absent from their jobs continued to decline and during the following five weeks. This time a more moderate decline of 2.2 million on average per week took place and absences from work reached 15.5 million in mid-June 2020 (week 25), which was their lowest level after their expansion in March same year. However, this number was still with 1.8 million more compared with the average number of absences for the 25th week during 2015-2019, and also with 2.3 million more compared with early March 2020 (week 10). In the last week of the first half of 2020, namely the week spanning the end of June (week 26), the number of absent from work people increased again, this time with 1.9 million in comparison with the previous week, and reached 17.4 million. For reference, the average number of absences for the same week during the previous years was 15.6 million.
Overall, looking at the first half of 2020, during all weeks after mid-February (week 8), absences from work exceeded their maximums recorded over the previous five years. This was most visible in the period from the mid-March 2020 (week 12) until the last week of April 2020 (week 18). During these weeks, absences from work were with at least 20 million more than the maximum number for the corresponding week during the past five years. Especially, in the beginning of April 2020 (week 14) when the number of absent from work people was with 30.7 million (nearly twice) more than the maximum number of absences during the last five years recorded in week 14 of 2018, which had been 15.0 million. Hereafter, this gap diminished in every week compared with the previous one, at least until the last week of June 2020 (week 26), when it went up again to 0.9 million from 0.4 million in the preceding week.
Men and women in EU-27 almost equally absent from work in April 2020
In this section of the article is presented information on the ratio between men and women among people absent from work in the first 26 weeks of 2020 in the EU. For a benchmark, the average of this ratio for the last five years (2015-2019) is also included. All this is visually illustrated in Figure 3. Note that a ratio amounting to 100 % suggests a gender equilibrium, whereas a ratio above this threshold implies that men are preponderated among absent from work people, and the opposite is suggested by ratio below 100 % (i.e. women are more).
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Source: Eurostat (lfsi_abs_w)
Men to women ratio for the first week of 2020 was 107.0 %, slightly more than the average for the same week in 2015-2019, which was 106.7 %. In other words, male absences from work were with 7.0 % more than female’s in the first week of 2020 and, respectively, with 6.7 % more on average for the same week over 2015-2019. After this week, up to early March 2020 (week 10), men to women ratio went down, closely resembling the average of this ratio for the previous five years. More precisely, from 107.0 % in the first week of 2020, it dropped to 82.9 % in the second week of the year. Hereafter, it continued to gradually decline and reached its lowest point in early March 2020 (week 10), when men to women ratio accounted for 66.5 %, or men were with one third (33.5 %) less than women among the group of absent from work people.
From the second week of March 2020 (week 11), alongside with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, men to women ratio started to increase steeply. The development of this ratio in March 2020 was the following, from 66.5 % at the beginning of the month (week 10, 2020) to 96.5 % by its end (week 13, 2020). In the first week of April 2020 (week 14), the number of men exceeded those of women among absent from work people. This is implied by men to women ratio for this week of the year amounting to 102.6 %. Indeed, during this week, marked with one of the greatest peaks of total absences in 2020 so far, the number of absent from work men was 23.1 million, whereas the corresponding number for women was 22.5 million. Furthermore, from the first week of March 2020 to the first week of April 2020 (week 10 to 14), male absences rose more sizable, with 17.9 million, and female’s with 14.6 million. For comparison, the average number of absent form work men and women for week 14 during the previous five years was, respectively, 5.3 and 7.2 million, corresponding to an average men to women ratio of 73.6 %.
After its peak in early April 2020 (week 14), men to women ratio decreased to levels below 100 % and gradually, but rather tentatively, began to decline over the weeks up to the end of June 2020 (week 26), when it reached 76.2 %. Nevertheless, for the whole period from week 11 to week 26 2020, men to women ratio was above the levels of its average over the previous five years. Most prominently, from mid-March and the whole of April 2020 (week 12 to 17), when men to women ratio was with more than 20 p.p. higher than the average for 2015-2019. The greatest difference could be observed for week 15, 98.9 % men to women ratio for this week in 2020 compared with 69.4 % on average for the same week over 2015-2019 (29.5 p.p. difference).
Disparities among countries according to the impact of COVID on weekly absences from work
The objective of this part of the article is to illustrate the situation in regards to weekly absences from work across European countries. To achieve this purpose, for every country with information available for more than 50 % of the weeks in the period 2015-2020, have been prepared a separate graph. The graphs contain information about the levels of absences from work for every calendar week from the first to the 26th of 2020, as well as the average of the number of absences recorded for the same sequence of weeks during the period 2015-2019. The range, i.e. minimum to maximum, for the weeks during 2015-2019 is also added. The graphs with their accompanying data could be found 
here.
Insofar the timing and strictness of the Covid-19 containment measures differed between countries, it could be expected that the effects on weekly absences would also vary from week to week and from country to country. In terms of the levels of increase, Cyprus, Romania and Greece were the Member States, which were at the top of the spectrum. In these countries, the number of employed people who were absent from work during the first half of 2020 was the most persistently higher than the number recorded over the previous years (average 2015-2019).
The increase of weekly absences, across the Member States, was the highest in Greece. Over ten weeks during the first half of 2020, from the mid-March (week 12) to the penultimate week of May (week 21), the number of absent from work people in this country was at least ten times more compared to the corresponding number in the previous years (see Figure 4). The situation was the most severe at the end of March and during May 2020 (week 13, 19 and 21). Absent from work people in Greece were 1 661, 966 and 709 thousand, respectively in 13th, 19th and 21st week of 2020, compared with 90, 52 and 41 thousand on average for the corresponding weeks over the previous years.
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Source: Eurostat (lfsi_abs_w)
Focusing only on the development in 2020 could be observed, that the number of weekly absences from work in Greece from the end April (week 17) began to decline consistently, although slower than its increase from the end of February towards the end of March 2020 (week 9 to 13). The number employed people who were not at their work grew from 71 to 1 661 thousand over one month, between the end of February and the end of March 2020 (week 9 to 13). Hereafter, it dropped to 1 351 thousand in the first week of April 2020 (week 14) and increased again to 1 518 thousand in the third week of the same month (week 16). From the next week (week 17), absences from work in Greece took a downward path: from 1 439 to 177 thousand from the end of April (week 17) to mid-June 2020 (week 25). It is worth noting that, during the first half of 2020, the number of weekly absences in Greece reached its highest volume over four weeks, and its lowest, after this peak, over twelve. In the last week of June 2020 (week 26), absent from work people increased again, this time with 111 thousand compared with the preceding week, and reached 288 thousand.
Despite that the number of absences from work towards the end of the observed period, i.e. June 2020, was lower in comparison with March, April and May of the same year, it was still substantially higher than the number recorded in the previous years. Especially in the second week of the month (week 24, 2020), when absences accounted for nearly five times the average number recorded for this week over 2015-2019 (209 thousand compared with 44 thousand).
Following Greece, with much of a distance, the number of weekly absences from work increased most severely in Cyprus and Romania. In the first half of 2020, these two countries recorded during the end of March, April and May (Cyprus: week 12 to 22; Romania: week 13 to 22), at least five times more absences from work compared with the average of the corresponding weeks during the previous years. And even more than ten times over four weeks. This was the case in Cyprus at the end of March and the beginning of April (week 13 and 14, 2020), as well as at mid-April and the beginning May (week 16 and 19, 2020), and in Romania, during most weeks of April (week 14, 16 and 18, 2020) and the beginning of May (week 19, 2020).
All Member States with available data experienced an increase in the number of weekly absences over the first half of 2020 in comparison with the previous years. However, this increase was slimmer in some countries, for example in Finland and the Netherlands. The example of the Netherlands is shown in Figure 5.
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Source: Eurostat (lfsi_abs_w)
In the Netherlands, the number of people absent from work during the first half of 2020 increased relatively more moderately. Moreover, after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, it was higher than the number recorded over the previous years for a shorter period compared with the other Member States. This was the case only in the five weeks from the end of March to the penultimate week of April 2020 (week 13 to 17). Most visibly, in the three weeks from the end of March to the mid-April 2020 (week 13 to 15), when the number of employed people who were not at their work was 1 088, 1 116 and 1 071 thousand, respectively, compared to almost half less on average for the previous five years, namely 445, 454 and 430 thousand. In the following two weeks, after mid-April 2020, the number of weekly absences in the Netherlands began to decline and towards the end of April 2020 (week 18), it returned to close proximity to its average values from the past (average 2015-2019).
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
All figures in this article are derived from the European labour force survey (EU-LFS).
Source: The European Union labour force survey (EU-LFS) is the largest European household sample survey providing mostly quarterly and annual results on labour participation of people aged 15 and over as well as on persons outside the labour force. It covers residents in private households. Conscripts in military or community service are not included in the results. The EU-LFS is based on the same target populations and uses the same definitions in all countries, which means that the results are comparable between countries.
European aggregates: EU refers to the sum of EU-27 Member States. If data are unavailable for a country, the calculation of the corresponding aggregates is computed with estimates. Such cases are indicated.
Country note: Due to technical issues with the introduction of the new German system of integrated household surveys, including the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the figures for Germany for the first and second quarter of 2020 are not direct estimates from LFS microdata, but based on a larger sample including additional data from other integrated household surveys. For more information, see here. Estimated figures for Germany for the first two quarters of 2020 are included in the EU aggregates; however, they are not available separately.
The notion of temporary absence from work refers to situations in which a period of work is interrupted by a period of absence. This implies that persons are generally to be considered as having been temporarily absent from work and therefore employed if they had already worked at their current activity and were expected to return to their work after the period of absence. Persons without work who had made arrangements to take up paid employment or to engage in some self-employment activity at a date subsequent to the reference period, but who had not yet started work, are not to be considered as temporarily absent from work.
For more information on absences from work, please consult pages 22 to 28 from the EU Labour Force Survey Explanatory Notes
Context
The COVID-19 virus hit Europe in January and February 2020, with the first cases confirmed in Spain, France and Italy. COVID-19 infections have now been diagnosed in all European Union (EU) Member States.
To fight the pandemic, EU Member States have taken a wide variety of measures.
From the second week of March, most countries closed retail shops apart from supermarkets, pharmacies and banks. Bars, restaurants and hotels have also been closed. In Italy and Spain, non-essential production was stopped and several countries imposed regional or even national lock-down measures which further stifled the economic activities in many areas.
In addition, schools were closed, public events were cancelled and private gatherings (with numbers of persons varying from 2 to 50) were banned in most Member States.
The large majority of the prevention measures were taken during mid-March 2020 and most of the prevention measures and restrictions were kept for the whole of April and May 2020.
The first quarter 2020 is consequently the first quarter in which the labour market across the EU has been affected by COVID-19 measures taken by the Member States.
Employment and unemployment as defined by the ILO concept are, in this particular situation, not sufficient to describe the developments taking place in the labour market. In this first phase of the crisis, active measures to contain employment losses led to absences from work rather than dismissals, and individuals could not search for work or were not available due to the containment measures, thus not counting as unemployed.
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