Workers missed an average of 19.4 days due to illness in 2023, according to Techniker Krankenkasse, the country’s largest public health insurance provider.
Preliminary figures suggest the trend will continue to rise, TK told the Financial Times, adding to the economic challenges many expect to see in the second year of 2024.
Although it is notoriously difficult to compare data from country to country, Christopher Prinz, an employment expert at the OECD, said Germany is “among the very top countries” when it comes to sick leave.
a study published in January by the German Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (VFA), an industry association, found that if it were not for the country’s above-average number of sick days, the German economy would have grown by 0.5 percent last year. instead of a 0.3 percent decrease.
Here’s more from Laura Pitel in the Financial Times. By Roland Stephen.
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