Archive:Absences from work - quarterly statistics
Data extracted in April 2021
Planned article update: XXX
Highlights
Absences from work can be classified in two groups: on one side, the planned, desired absences (e.g. annual holidays) and on the other side, the unplanned, undesired absences (e.g. illnesses, lay-offs). While the first type of absences could be easily “absorbed” by the companies as their effect could be planned and also mitigated, for example, by rescheduling the work priorities or recruiting temporary staff, the second type could lead to disruption of the production cycles and lead to material losses to both employers and employees.
It is worth noting that sometimes this distinction is not so easy to make. Usually, annual leave is guaranteed by legislation, which may lead some employers to encourage their employees to take holidays when the enterprise is facing economic difficulties. This means that holidays sometimes may mask actual lay-offs.
The beginning of 2020 was marked by an outbreak of the worldwide pandemic COVID-19, leading almost all governments around the globe to take restrictive measures, of which the social distancing had a pivotal role. To prevent the spread of the virus and to ensure distancing of people, many businesses were temporarily shut down and many employees confined to their homes. Whereas worker protection laws may imply that employment, especially employees, will not be affected, at least in the beginning of the pandemic, one may expect over time a sharp rise of absences from work which falls under the aforementioned second category of undesired, unplanned absences.
This article aims to depict the absences from work in the European Union (EU) as a whole, for all EU Member States individually (except Germany for which data is not yet available), as well as for three EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland), the United Kingdom and four candidate countries (Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey). Please note that the presented data is seasonally adjusted.
The population of interest in this article is employed persons (age group 20-64) who are temporarily absent from work (incl. business). The notion of temporary absence from work refers to situations in which a period of work is interrupted by a period of absence.
The article is part of the online publication Labour market in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic - quarterly statistics along with the articles Labour market slack - unmet need for employment and Hours of work.
Full article
After a sharp rise in the first two quarters of 2020, absences from work went down in the third, then, again took an upward turn in the final quarter of the year
In 2020, absences from work recorded unprecedented levels since the beginning of the time series in 2006 (Figure 1). In the last quarter of 2019 (Q4 2019), 18.1 million people were absent from their jobs in the EU. This number reached 23.5 million at the beginning of 2020, i.e. during the first quarter of the year (Q1 2020). In the second quarter of 2020 (Q2 2020), the number of people absent from work saw an even more striking increase, it reached 35.3 million. Then, during the third quarter of 2020 (Q3 2020), the COVID-19 confinement measures were eased in many countries. The number of people absent from their jobs also reflected this. After its sharp increase during the first two quarters of 2020, absences from work went down in the third quarter of the year and accounted for 17.9 million people, i.e. a number closer to the pre-pandemic EU in Q4 2019. However, in the last quarter of 2020 (Q4 2020), the pandemic situation exacerbated and the number of absences from work went up again to reach 22.3 million people. For reference, over the last fourteen years, until the end of 2019, the total number of absences from work varied from 14.4 to 18.9 million.
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Primarily the number of temporary lay-offs determined the dynamic of the absences from work in the EU during 2020 (see Figure 2). The levels of temporary lay-offs had been relatively stable in the period before Q1 2020, with the exception of the first two quarters of 2009, when they rose consequently by 0.3 and 0.2 million. Their number also never exceeded 0.5 million after the third quarter of 2014. However, in Q1 2020, 3.0 million people were absent from work because of temporary lay-off, an increase of 2.7 million in comparison with the previous quarter. In the following quarter (Q2 2020), this number increased even more sharply, by nearly five times, and reached 13.8 million. In Q3 2020, the number of temporary lay-offs steeply went down to 2.0 million. Nevertheless, this was still substantially more than the last quarter of 2019 when people absent from their jobs due to this reason had been 0.3 million. In Q4 2020, the number of temporary lay-offs rebounded to a level similar to the beginning of the year (Q1 2020) and reached 3.1 million.
“Other” reasons corresponded to the second category with the largest contribution to the dynamic of the total number of absences from work in 2020. The number of people who had “other” reasons for not being at work went from 3.3 million in the last quarter of 2019 to 5.2 and 8.7 million for Q1 and Q2 of 2020 respectively. Then, in Q3 2020, the number of people in this group dropped to 4.1 million, however in the next quarter (Q4 2020) it went up again, this time to 4.6 million. Looking at the long-term evolution of this category does not reveal major fluctuations in its number; furthermore, before 2020 it had ranged between 2.7 and 3.3 million.
“Holidays” had been traditionally the most predominant reason for absence from work of the employed people; nevertheless, in 2020 their position was rivalled by the aforementioned two reasons for absence. After an increase from Q4 2019 to Q1 2020 from 10.5 to 11.5 million, the number of people absent from work due to holidays dropped to 8.5 million in Q2 2020 and then to 7.9 million in Q3 2020, which was their lowest level for the whole time series since 2006. Hereafter, the number of absences due to holidays went up to 10.3 million in Q4 2020, i.e. a similar level to its values from a year ago (from Q4 2019).
By contrast, the last category of absence, illustrated in Figure 2, namely “Own illness or disability” did not fluctuate so aggressively during 2020. People in this group were 3.9 million during Q1 and Q3 2020, and 4.3 and 4.4 million respectively for Q2 and Q4 2020. For reference, in Q4 2019 their number was 4.0 million. It is worth mentioning, that looking at the evolution of the number of employed people absent from work due to their own illness or disability, one could observe a slow but steady increase of their levels since the first quarter of 2006 onwards: from values slightly below 3 million at the beginning of the time series to values firmly exceeding 4 million towards the end of the observed period, i.e. the final quarter of 2020.
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The structure of absences from work by reason in the EU during the last four quarters (Q4 2019 - Q3 2020), presented in Figure 3, shows that holidays were the most predominant reason for absence in Q4 2019, representing 58.3 % of all absences during this quarter. Between Q4 2019 and Q2 2020, the situation changed and holidays were replaced by temporary lay-off as the most widespread reason for absence. Temporary lay-offs amounted to 39.4 % of all absences from work in Q2 2020. In the following quarter (Q3 2020), holidays regained their prevalent position among absences, with 44.8 % of all absences. However, this was still with 13.5 percentage points less than their level in Q4 2019. On the other hand, temporary lay-offs represented 11.6 % of all absences in Q3 2020, which was lower than the value of 39.4 % in Q2 2020, but still much higher than the value of 1.7 % in Q4 2019. It is also worth noting that, the share of absences for own illness or disability in Q3 2020 (22.9 %), after two consecutive quarters of reduction (17.0 % in Q1 2020 and 12.4 % in Q2 2020), closely returned to its level of Q4 2019 (21.9 %).
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Figure 4 compares the overall absences from work as a percentage of employment in the first three quarters of 2020. At EU level, absences accounted for 12.1 % of employment in Q1 2020 and 18.7 % in Q2 2020. Hereafter, this share went down to reach 9.1 % in Q3 2020. Note that the evolution of this ratio encompasses the evolution in the level of absences but also in the level of employment. For more information on employment in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, please consult the articles Employment and Employment in detail.
The situation among almost all Member States was similar as for the EU as a whole: the shares of absences from work increased from Q1 to Q2 2020 and dropped in Q3 2020 to levels lower than for the previous two quarters. Ireland was the only exception with a share of absences in Q3 2020 higher than in Q1 2020.
The development over the first three quarters of 2020 was very dynamic in the majority of EU countries, with the biggest developments in Cyprus, Greece and Spain. In Cyprus, shares of absences went up from 12.5 % in Q1 2020 to 29.6 % in Q2 2020 and dropped to 8.6 % in Q3 2020. In Greece, absences represented 9.6 % of employment in Q1 2020, 24.0 % in Q2 2020 and 5.2 % in Q3 2020. In Spain, 12.2 % in Q1 2020, 27.4 % in Q2 2020 and 11.9 % in Q3 2020. Furthermore, Cyprus and Spain were at the top of the scale with the highest rates in Q2 2020, when the rate of absences was overall the highest considering the first there quarters of 2020.
In contrast, the share of absences in Sweden remained almost stable during the first three quarters of 2020: 16.3 % in Q1, 16.2 % in Q2 and 16.1 % in Q3. Sweden registered the highest share of absences among the EU countries in Q3 2020, and the second-highest, following France, in Q1 2020. France was indeed always among the EU countries with the highest share of absences from work during the first three quarters of 2020, with 18.5 % in Q1, 27.1 % in Q2 and 14.4 % in Q3. Malta, Bulgaria and Romania also stood out from the other Member States during the same period but this time with perseveringly low rates of absences.
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Source: Eurostat (lfsi_emp_q), (lfsi_abs_q)
Figure 5 compares the shares of absence from work in Q3 2020 with Q4 2019, the quarter before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. Considering only the development between those two periods, the share of absences was higher in Q3 2020 than in Q4 2019 in the majority of the EU countries (15 out of 26 with available data). Among those, the largest increase could be observed in Ireland (+4.6 p.p.), followed by Spain (+2.9 p.p.), and the smallest increase in Lithuania and Croatia (+0.1 p.p. for both). In the remaining 11 EU countries, the share of absences recorded in Q3 2020 was lower than in Q4 2019, the reduction was the most substantial in Slovakia (-3.0 p.p.) and Estonia (-2.1 p.p.), and rather minor in Czechia, Denmark (-0.3 p.p. for both) and Malta (-0.1 p.p., but low reliability). At EU level, absences from work expressed as a percentage of employment were slightly lower in Q3 2020 than in Q4 2019 (-0.6 p.p.).
Focusing on the non-EU countries, the United Kingdom stood out with a share of absences being much higher in Q3 2020 than in Q4 2019 (+8.8 p.p.). Moreover, absences from work in the United Kingdom in Q3 2020 reached 19.1 % of employment, which was the highest rate among all countries with available data for this quarter.
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Source: Eurostat (lfsi_emp_q), (lfsi_abs_q)
Considering only Q3 2020, the share of absences in employment was higher for women than for men in all countries as shown in Figure 6. This is also observed at EU level: 7.4 % of employed men were absent from work, against 11.0 % of employed women. The gender gap was the widest among the EU Member States in Ireland, where absences stood at 8.8 % for men and 16.3 % for women (gap 7.5 p.p.), followed by Slovenia (9.3 % for men versus 15.8 % for women, gap 6.5 p.p.) and Poland (4.4 % for men versus 10.4 % for women, gap 6.0 p.p.). The narrowest gap was observed in Estonia (7.0 % for men versus 7.7 % for women, gap 0.7 p.p.), followed by Hungary (3.7 % for men versus 5.1 % for women, gap 1.4 p.p.) and Bulgaria (1.2 % for men versus 2.6 % for women, gap 1.4 p.p.).
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Absences from work due to holidays
People absent from work due to holidays reached 11.2 million in the EU in Q1 2020. Subsequently, this number dropped to 8.8 million in Q2 2020 and 7.6 million in Q3 2020. Expressed as a share of employed people, absences due to holidays represented 5.9 % in Q1 2020, 4.7 % in Q2 2020 and 4.1 % in Q3 2020 at EU level (Figure 7).
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Source: Eurostat (lfsi_emp_q), (lfsi_abs_q)
During the first three quarters of 2020, Sweden and France were the Member States, where the share of people absent due to holidays was among the highest. This share in Sweden was 9.2 % in Q1 2020, 6.8 % in Q2 2020 and 8.9 % in Q3 2020, while in France was 10.6 % in Q1 2020, 8.2 % in Q2 2020 and 8.5 % in Q3 2020. In Q1 2020, the share of absences due to holidays was the highest in France, followed by Sweden, and in Q3 2020, Sweden recorded the highest share, followed by France. By contrast, Bulgaria, Malta, Romania and Slovakia corresponded to the lowest shares in at least one of the three quarters of 2020. Bulgaria, Romania and Malta (low reliability) reported the lowest percentages of absences due to holidays for Q1 2020, while the lowest percentages for Q3 2020 could be found in Romania (1.0 %), Slovakia (0.9 %) and Bulgaria (0.5 %, low reliability).
Absences from work due to own illness or disability
At EU level, the number of people who were absent from work due to their own illness or disability went up from 3.9 to 4.4 million from Q1 to Q2 2020 and returned to 3.9 million in Q3 2020. This represents 2.1 %, 2.3 % and 2.1 % of employed people respectively for the first three consecutive quarters of 2020 (Figure 8).
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Source: Eurostat (lfsi_emp_q), (lfsi_abs_q)
Comparing the EU countries, the rate of absences due to own illness or disability in employment was the highest, in the first three quarters of the year in Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium and Slovenia. In these countries, the rate never went below 3 %. It even reached 4.2 % in Spain and 4.0 % in France in Q2 2020. In contrast, absences due to own illness or disability never exceeded 1 % in Italy, Bulgaria and Greece during the first three quarters of 2020.
Absences from work due to temporary lay-off
The number of absences due to temporary lay-off was 2.9 million in the EU in Q1 2020. It exploded to 13.8 million in Q2 2020 and dropped back to 2.0 million in Q3 2020. These numbers corresponded to 1.5 % of employed people in Q1 2020, 7.4 % in Q2 2020 and 1.1 % in Q3 2020 respectively.
Even if variations can be found among the Member States, the situation in each country is similar to the overall pattern at the EU level: a sharp increase of the share of temporary lay-offs can be observed from Q1 to Q2 2020 followed by a drop in Q3 2020 (see Figure 9).
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Source: Eurostat (lfsi_emp_q), (lfsi_abs_q)
During the first three quarters of 2020, Spain and Cyprus were invariably among the Member States with the highest shares of temporary lay-offs in employment. Moreover, Cyprus was at the top of the scale in Q2 2020, followed by Spain, and Spain was at the top in Q3 2020, followed by Cyprus. In detail, temporary lay-offs as a share of employment in Spain increased from 2.9 % to 17.8 % between Q1 and Q2 2020 and decreased to 2.7 % in Q3 2020. In Cyprus, absences due to temporary lay-off represented 4.6 % of employment in Q1 2020, 23.3 % in Q2 2020 and 2.1 % in Q3 2020.
In contrast, Czechia was the Member State where the share of temporary lay-offs was among the lowest in the EU in all three first quarters of 2020, as it never exceeded 0.5 % in that period
Finally, it is also worth noting that the share of absences due to temporary lay-off in the United Kingdom in Q3 2020 stood at 6.0 %, which was considerably higher than both the EU average and the rate of the Member State with the highest share in the same quarter.
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
All figures in this article are based on seasonally adjusted quarterly results 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: In Germany, from the first quarter of 2020 onwards, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) is part of a new system of integrated household surveys. Unfortunately, technical issues and the COVID-19 crisis has had a large impact on data collection processes, resulting in low response rates and a biased sample. For this reason, additional data from other integrated household surveys has been used in addition to the LFS subsample, to estimate a restricted set of indicators for the first three quarters of 2020, for the production of LFS Main Indicators. These estimates have been used for the publication of German results, but also in the calculation of EU and EA aggregates. By contrast, EU and EA aggregates published in the Detailed quarterly results (showing more and different breakdowns than the LFS Main Indicators) have been computed using only available data from the LFS subsample. As a consequence, small differences in the EU and EA aggregates in tables from both collections may be observed. For more information, see here.
Definitions: 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.
This article refers to the following reasons for absence from work: temporary lay-off, holidays, own illness or disability and other. Absence from work is classified as a “temporary lay-off” if it is due to slack work for technical or economic reasons; this category also includes absences due to difficulties such as plant breakdown or materials shortage. Those whom written or unwritten contract of employment, or activity, has been suspended by the employer are also considered as employed and absent from work due to temporary lay-off if they have an assurance of return to work within a period of 3 months or receive at least 50 % of their wage or salary from their employer. “Own illness or disability” includes own illness, injury or temporary disability. The category “other” encompasses absences due to bad weather, labour dispute, school education or training, maternity leave, parental leave, compensation leave and other personal or family reasons.
For more information on absences from work, please consult pages 22 to 28 from EU Labour Force Survey Explanatory Notes
Also, five different articles on detailed technical and methodological information are available from the overview page of the online publication EU Labour Force Survey.
Context
The COVID-19 pandemic 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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