Sickness absences in the municipal sector declining after the healthcare and social welfare reform package and the coronavirus pandemic

Finnish Institute of Occupational Health press release 28 August 2024

The Kunta10 study of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health has monitored employees' sickness absences in 11 municipalities since 2000. At the beginning of 2023, the healthcare and social welfare reform package largely removed employees from municipalities’ payroll in the healthcare, social welfare and rescue sectors. At present, the largest occupational groups in municipalities consist of, for example, school and early childhood education teachers, whose number in the research material has remained relatively unchanged.  

The number of sickness absences among employees who continued working in the municipal sector after the healthcare and social welfare reform package has fallen to the level of 2021. The spike in sickness absences caused by the coronavirus pandemic in 2022 seems to have been temporary.

“It is difficult to deduce from the data the extent to which the reduction in sickness absences is due to the coronavirus pandemic subsiding and thus represents a genuine reduction in morbidity, and the extent to which it is the result of changes in the occupational structure of the group being studied,” says Director of the Kunta10 study Jenni Ervasti from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.

However, Kela and Keva’s statistics support the assumed declining trend in sickness absences. According to Keva’s statistics, sickness absences among public sector personnel in 2023 fell to nearly the level of 2021. The long absences in Kela’s statistics also indicate that the total number of people receiving sickness allowance in the entire workforce decreased by approximately 3% between 2023 and 2022.   

Differences between age groups have narrowed, and the coping of young employees is a concern  

The spike in sickness absences in 2022 was visible in all age groups, and in 2023, the rates returned to the level of previous years.  

Employees under the age of 30 still have the highest number of sickness absences compared to other age groups. In the youngest age group, the average number of sickness absence days was 18.3 days per year. The age group of 40–50-year-olds had the least amount of sickness absence days with an average of 14.7 days.

Differences between age groups have evened out over the last twenty years.

“In the oldest group in particular, sickness absences have decreased compared to the early 2000s. The sickness absences of young employees are an exception to the otherwise positive development, and this can be considered worrying,” Ervasti says.

According to Kela’s statistics, sickness absences among young employees are most often related to mental health. The number of sickness allowances granted due to mental health problems, especially anxiety disorders, increased in 2023.

Socio-economic differences between occupational groups in morbidity rates have remained unchanged

In general, those working in management and expert positions had fewer sickness absences than those doing physical labour.  

However, the working environment within the same socio-economic group also affects sickness absences: School teachers are less prone to illness than early childhood education teachers. Lecturers and hourly-paid teachers (9.9 days) and class teachers (12.7 days) had fewer sickness absences compared to the Kunta10 average (16.6 days), while early childhood education teachers had an above-average number of sickness absences (22.0 days).  

Differences in morbidity rates were also reflected in the proportion of employees with zero sickness absence days. On average, every fifth employee in the 2023 sickness absence data of the entire Kunta10 study had no sickness absences during the year.  

Of those working in management and expert positions, 30 to 45 per cent were never absent from work due to their own illness, while less than 10 per cent of childcarers, early childhood education teachers and classroom assistants working with children were able to avoid sickness absences entirely.

Kunta10 study

• The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health’s Kunta10 study is Finland’s largest follow-up study of municipal employees. The Kunta10 study involves Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Naantali, Raisio, Nokia, Valkeakoski and Virrat.  
• The annual sickness absences of more than 90,000 municipal employees is monitored from the personnel registers of employers in a uniform manner in proportion to the actual sickness absence days and the number of person-years worked.
• The statistics in the Kunta10 study cover all absences due to the employees’ own illness from the first day of absence, but do not include information on the reasons for sickness absences.  
• The sickness absence statistics for 2023 are based on 69,915 person-years.  
  
  

See also

• The results of the Kunta10 study follow-up surveys can be viewed in the Work-life Knowledge Service (latest figures from 2022):
  • Sickness absences in Finnish municipalities | Work-life Knowledge | www.tyoelamatieto.fi
  • Municipal work and employee well-being | Work-life Knowledge | www.tyoelamatieto.fi 
• Kela’s sickness allowance press release 2024: Mental health problems already forced more than 100,000 Finns on a long sickness absence in 2023 | Kela
• Keva’s sickness absence press release 2024: Exceptional growth in sickness absences reversed – Keva
  
  

Further information

• Jenni Ervasti, Senior Researcher, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, jenni.ervasti@ttl.fi, +358 (0)30 474 2806