Young employees twice as often on sick leave

Young employees sick more frequently than older colleagues

15/02/2011

Young employees are more likely to be sick than older colleagues. This emerges from the health report of the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), in which the sick leave of approximately 3.5 million TK insured employees and unemployment benefit recipients from last year were evaluated. According to the TK, the average number of young sick workers per year is around two. Employees between the ages of 15 and 25 are therefore twice as likely to be sick twice as their older colleagues. However, absenteeism per sick leave is highest among employees over the age of 55 years.

Young employees twice as often on sick leave
While the younger employees are on sick leave about twice a year, get older employees on average only once a year, a certificate from the doctor, according to the TK. All in all, however, this does not entail any higher absenteeism of the young employees, since the older employees are on average significantly longer in the case of a sick leave than the 15-19 year olds. While the average duration of a sick leave of the youngest employees is just under six days, the over-55s are just under 19 days, said Gudrun Ahlers, responsible for health reports at the TK. The main reason for the longer downtime of older employees, called the expert, with age increasing serious illnesses. Gudrun Ahlers stressed that „Illnesses such as back pain, cardiovascular complaints and mental disorders, which experience has shown to be very tedious, (...) are more common among older workers“ occur.

Mental complaints on the rise
We pay particular attention to mental health problems in the current report of the TK, as they have increased by about 14 percent compared to the previous year and are the main reason why the overall sick leave has not decreased. Although older employees are also more affected here, „however, we also see a significant increase in sick leave due to mental health diagnoses among younger employees in recent years“, emphasized the expert of the TK. According to TK, the increase in mental illness is primarily due to the pressure at work and the associated stress. The employees are no longer able to meet the increased demands of the working world, such as the requirements for qualification and flexibility in the long term. In addition, the stress is compounded by the uncertainty associated with fixed-term contracts. For example, every employee in this country lacks an average of two days a year because of a mental illness, said Gudrun Ahlers of the TK. Although, for example, in the respiratory diseases, a significant decline was recorded, the sick leave last year due to the increase in mental illness stagnated at a total of 3.3 percent. According to the TK, sick leave rates in 2010 averaged 12.3 days per employee. (Fp)

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Image: Verena N..