H1N1: Absenteeisme declines

The number of employed people who reported they were absent from work due to the H1N1 or seasonal flu in December, and the number of hours lost, declined significantly from November.

In December, 734,000 employed people aged 15 to 69 reported they were absent from work due to the H1N1 or seasonal flu, according to data derived from questions added to January's Labour Force Survey. They represented 4.4% of workers in that age group. On average, each absent worker lost 18.3 hours of work, for a total of 13.4 million hours lost.

All figures were down from November, when 9.0% of workers had lost an average of 19.6 hours of work each as a result of the flu, for a total of 29.5 million hours lost.

In December, 471,000 people aged 15 to 69 put in a total of 6.9 million extra hours at work, due to the H1N1 or seasonal flu. The combined effect of hours lost and extra hours worked resulted in a net loss of 6.5 million hours in December. This was down by about two-thirds from the net flu-related loss of 20.9 million hours in November.

In December, 4.9% of women reported work hours lost as a result of the flu, down from 10.5% the month before. Among men, flu-related absenteeism fell from 7.6% to 4.0%. The age group most affected in December was workers aged 35 to 39, of whom 6.1% were absent from work.

Provincially, the flu-related absenteeism rate declined in every province from November to December. The largest decrease occurred in Newfoundland and Labrador, where it fell from 14.2% of workers to 4.7%. Absent workers from this province were off the longest among all provinces in December (21.5 hours).

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