Absence due to illness in the fourth quarter amounted to 6.8%, which is the highest level since 2009. More than half of Norwegian municipalities still have staffing problems.
“Sick leave in Norway continues to increase, and, in the previous quarter, it was the highest since 2009 – a year marked by swine flu and the financial crisis. Much of the increase can be explained by corona infection,” head of statistics at the NAV, Ulf Andersen, stated in a press release.
“From July to September in 2021, sickness absence was at the highest level since the swine flu in 2009,” said Tonje Køber, section manager for the labor market and wages at Statistics Norway (SSB).
Total sick leave in the fourth quarter showed an increase of 2.5% from the third quarter. The sickness absence certified by a doctor was 5.5%, an increase of 2%.
Sharp increase in recent weeks
In recent weeks, some municipalities have reported a sickness absence of more than 20% in connection with the peak of infection in the omicron wave. There is, therefore, reason to believe that the numbers will also continue to increase in the first quarter of this year. Sick leave is so high that it still creates challenges for the municipalities.
“Last week, 55% of Norwegian municipalities had challenging access to personnel and critical competence. 71% of municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants reported the same thing,” Assistant Health Director Espen Rostrup Nakstad told NTB.
He pointed out that there are 3.8 million people living in these municipalities.
“The number of new people on sick leave last week was 83% higher than the corresponding week in 2019, and we have seen a clear increase in recent weeks, especially among COVID-19-related sick leave,” Nakstad said.
Believes absenteeism will remain high
Nakstad says that the infection figures indicate that sickness absence will remain high for some time to come, especially outside the Oslo area.
“The municipalities continue to report high sickness absence among personnel, especially in the health and care services and the child care sector. At the same time, there are few reserve staff and substitutes available,” Nakstad said.
According to Nakstad, the hospitals report that sickness absence at the department level varies between 10 and 20%.
“It varies from county to county and municipality to municipality. In some places, it is still on the rise, mostly in the west and north, in other areas of the country, it has stabilized and is on the way down,” the FHI’s Frode Forland told NTB via SMS.
More women with corona-related absence
Divided by gender, the figures show that sickness absence in the fourth quarter was 5.2% for men and 8.6% for women. The increase for men was largest at 4%, while for women it was 1.6%. Corona-related absence is the major driver of the increase. The figures show that more women than men reported corona-related absence.
“This may be due to the fact that they work to a greater extent in occupations with a lot of close contact with other people. This makes them more exposed to infection, and they are less likely to work from home in quarantine and with mild symptoms,” Andersen stated.
Large sickness absence in the health care system
An important part of the pandemic strategy in Norway has been to protect the health service against excessive absenteeism. The NAV’s figures show that the health and social services had the highest sickness absence with 8.9%, an increase of 7.5% from the same quarter last year.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, the health and social services lost more than 2.6 million person-days. 5% of absences constitute corona-related diagnoses. There was also more than 6% sickness absence in the industry groups transport, storage, and education, which is a tripling for these groups.
More young people on sick leave
The figures show that the largest increase in absenteeism was in the 20–24 years age group, with an increase of 17.2%. Sick leave increased the least in the 60–64 years age group.
Distributed by region, Nordland had the highest sickness absence (6.9%), followed by Troms and Finnmark (6.6%), while Oslo (4.7%) had the lowest.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
Do you have a news tip for Norway Today? We want to hear it. Get in touch at [email protected]
Be the first to comment on "Sky-high sick leave in the fourth quarter – continued challenges in several Norwegian municipalities"