Helsinki (03.01.2008 - Juhani Artto) Preliminary data from the 2007 working life barometer offers a surprise. The number of sick leave days continues, last year, to decrease despite the age structure of the labour force having got older. In 2005, the average number of sick leave days per employee was 9.3 and for 2007 it will be only 8.0 days. In 2006 the number was 8.9 days.
By international comparison this trend is exceptional, comments Elina Moisio, a special assistant at the ministry of labour.
The biggest surprise in the preliminary results is that the largest drop in the number of sick leave days was to be found amongst the oldest group of employees (over 54 years of age).
In 2007, more than a third of wage and salary earners (38 per cent) had not a single day of absence due to illness throughout the entire year. The rate of these zero-absence employees is highest in the youngest and oldest groups of employees.
In 2006, the average number of sick leave days in the oldest group was 13.2. Last year the figure sank to 9.3. Still, the age old rule that "getting older means more sick leave days" remains in force although in 2007 the rule has become considerably weaker. In the youngest group (from 25 to 34 years of age) the number of sick leave days has increased.
Researchers' explanations as to the reasons for this rather surprising trend are still more or less speculative. "It is not the first time the baby-boom generation breaks long-time trends", notes Pekka Ylöstalo, the researcher responsible for the working life barometer at the ministry of labour.
Baby-boomers represent the first generation that has a high level of education. And the majority of these have "comfortable indoor work" that is less risky to the health than most of jobs held by previous generations, Ylöstalo explains.
Another possible explanation may be some kind of exclusivity. Old employees, inclined to get sick, may leave working life earlier than equally old but healthier colleagues.
A quite different explanation focuses on developments in the municipal sector. There the number of sick leave days has come down more rapidly than in other sectors of the working life. Ylöstalo does not exclude the possibility that in the municipal sector many employees, in fear of losing their jobs, have not stayed at home despite minor illnesses. In many
municipalities there has been pressure to cut jobs in order to reach a balanced budget.
Since 1992 the working life barometer has been conducted annually. The 2007 survey is based on a random sample of 1,480 interviewees. The target group were Finnish-speaking wage and salary employees from 18 to 64 years of age. Over 83 per cent of the sampled employees replied to the questionnaire. Ylöstalo does not question the validity of the sample.