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        National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
        National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Worker Health and Safety Surveillance
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      Worker Health and Safety Surveillance
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  NIOSH Surveillance
January 31, 2024
  Absences in the Workplace
          Key points
            * We use data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) to monitor health-related workplace absences reported by full-time workers.
            * Increased absences could mean workers in certain industries, occupations, or demographic groups are experiencing more illness than usual.
            * Public health professionals can pair absenteeism's rich demographic information with more traditional flu-like illness surveillance data to better measure the impact of flu-like illnesses.
        About workplace absenteeism
        Workplace absenteeism refers to time taken off work due to illness or other reasons, such as childcare or transportation issues.
        Health-related workplace absences
        NIOSH monitors absences reported by full-time workers due specifically to their own illness, injury, or other medical issue. This is known as health-related workplace absenteeism.
        Understanding patterns of workplace absences can be useful for public health. Increased absences could mean that workers in certain industries, occupations, or demographic groups are experiencing more illness than usual. This information can be used to help guide workplace interventions.
          View the latest data trends
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        The following dashboards show the most recent prevalence of worker absences due to health-related reasonsA.
        The data for these visualizations are available in an Excel Workbook.
        The data for these visualizations are available in an Excel workbook.
        See the footnotes used in this dashboard.B
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              Previous seasons
                  2023-2024 Dashboards Data File
                  2022-2023 Dashboard Data File
                  2021-2022 Dashboards Data File
                  2020-2021 Dashboards Data File
                  2019-2020 Dashboards Data File
                  2018-2019 Dashboards Data File
                  2017-2018 Dashboards Data File
          How these data fill a gap
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        CDC's traditional flu surveillance is mainly based on disease reporting from doctors and laboratory testing. During flu season, not all people who are sick go to a doctor; however, they often take off work.
          When we feel sick, we may not see a doctor, but we may take off work. Increased absences could mean that workers in certain industries, occupations, or demographic groups are experiencing more illness than usual.
        Studies have found that health-related workplace absences and flu-like illnesses follow the same trends.123This is why absenteeism data can be a good supplementary resource for monitoring outbreaks.
        Though more traditional data are obtained quickly, they may not include much demographic information to guide interventions. Absenteeism data are more detailed with useful demographics, like age, race, and sex. However, these data take more time to collect.
        If we combine absenteeism data with other traditional flu-like illness surveillance data, we can better measure the overall impact of flu outbreaks and epidemics/pandemics caused by other diseases.
        Below, we demonstrate the value of combining health-related workplace absences data with traditional data sets.
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              See the data and footnotes for these visualizations
                    * Workbook 1
                    * Workbook 2
                    * Workbook 3
                  See the footnotes used in this dashboard.C
        Who benefits from these data
        Monitoring trends in health-related workplace absenteeism across the U.S. can help:
          * Doctors, other healthcare personnel, employers and workers be more informed about disease occurrence and severity during a flu pandemic and during seasonal epidemics.
          * Public health authorities better target prevention messages and evaluate how well pandemic control measures work.
          * Emergency responders prepare for future pandemics.
        How we calculate absenteeism
        NIOSH uses data on workplace absences from the Current Population Survey (CPS).
        Each month, NIOSH updates charts showing the amountA of health-related absenteeism among full-time workers, using CPS data collected in the previous month. For a particular week each month, a sample of full-time workers are asked how many hours they actually worked. If they worked less than 35 hours, they are asked about the reason for their absence. These 1-week measures are meant to represent absenteeism for all weeks in the month.
        Our analysis compares the current amount of health-related absences from work to an "epidemic threshold." The epidemic threshold is calculated using baseline absenteeism data from the previous five years, averaged by month, and information about the likely variation of these baseline data.
        Absenteeism is considered significantly higher than expected when the lower limit of the estimate's margin of error is higher than the epidemic threshold.
        Related publications
        Groenewold MR, Burrer SL, Ahmed F, Uzicanin A, Free H, Luckhaupt SE. Increases in Health-Related Workplace Absenteeism Among Workers in Essential Critical Infrastructure Occupations During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, March–April 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:853–858.
        Groenewold MR, Burrer SL, Ahmed F, Uzicanin A, Luckhaupt SE. Health-Related Workplace Absenteeism Among Full-Time Workers — United States, 2017–18 Influenza Season. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2019;68:577–582.
        Groenewold MR, Konicki DL, Luckhaupt SE, Gomaa A, Koonin LM. Exploring national surveillance for health-related workplace absenteeism: Lessons learned from the 2009 influenza A pandemic. Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2013;7:160-166.
        On This Page
            * About workplace absenteeism
            * View the latest data trends
            * How these data fill a gap
            * Who benefits from these data
            * How we calculate absenteeism
            * Related publications
          Related PagesNational Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
          Related Pages
        * 
 
            * National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
            * National Occupational Mortality Surveillance (NOMS)
            * Pesticide Illness and Injury Surveillance
        * 
            * Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey
        * State-Based Occupational Respiratory Disease
            * Occupational Respiratory Disease
            * View All
          View All Surveillance
 
    Pesticide Illness and Injury Surveillance
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  January 31, 2024
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        National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
        Footnotes
         1. The amount of health-related workplace absenteeism is calculated as the percentage of full-time workers who worked less than 35 hours because they were ill, injured, or had another medical issue.
         2. [*] Defined as working fewer than 35 hrs during the reference week due to illness, injury or other medical issue....[†] Defined as employed persons aged 16 years or older who usually work 35+ hours per week at all jobs combined...[‡] Expected values based on monthly averages for the previous 5 seasons....[§] Defined as working fewer than 35 hrs during the reference week for non-economic reasons....[¶] Occupation classification based on subjects' primary job.
         3. [*]Data source: CPS Home: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov)[†]Data source: U.S. Influenza Surveillance: Purpose and Methods | CDC[‡]Data source: Trends in Number of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths in the US Reported to CDC, by State/Territory; CDC COVID Data Tracker: Links to Archived Data and Visualizations
        References
         1. Groenewold MR, Konicki DL, Luckhaupt SE, Gomaa A, Koonin LM. Exploring national surveillance for health-related workplace absenteeism: Lessons learned from the 2009 influenza A pandemic. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. 2013;7:160-166.
         2. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Sickness absenteeism among full-time workers in the US, August 2009. NIOSH eNews. 2009;7:6. Accessed December 30, 2011.
         3. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Issues in Labor Statistics. Washington, DC: Bureau of Labor Statistics; 2010. Illness-related work absences during flu season. Accessed December 30, 2011.Occupational groups correspond to the CPS Major Occupational Group recodes, which are groupings of Census Occupation Codes.
        Sources
          * Groenewold MR, Burrer SL, Ahmed F, Uzicanin A, Free H, Luckhaupt SE. Increases in Health-Related Workplace Absenteeism Among Workers in Essential Critical Infrastructure Occupations During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, March–April 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:853–858.
          * Groenewold MR, Burrer SL, Ahmed F, Uzicanin A, Luckhaupt SE. Health-Related Workplace Absenteeism Among Full-Time Workers — United States, 2017–18 Influenza Season. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2019;68:577–582.
          * Groenewold MR, Konicki DL, Luckhaupt SE, Gomaa A, Koonin LM. Exploring national surveillance for health-related workplace absenteeism: Lessons learned from the 2009 influenza A pandemic. Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2013;7:160-166.
      Related PagesNational Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
      Related Pages
    * 
 
        * National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
        * National Occupational Mortality Surveillance (NOMS)
        * Pesticide Illness and Injury Surveillance
    * 
        * Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey
    * State-Based Occupational Respiratory Disease
        * Occupational Respiratory Disease
        * View All
      View All Surveillance
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    NIOSH
    The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 established NIOSH as a research agency focused on the study of worker safety and health, and empowering employers and workers to create safe and healthy workplaces.
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          * Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey
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