Record number of sick days logged in Switzerland in 2022

Non-Covid-related illnesses, such as the classic flu, returned to Switzerland in force in 2022. Keystone / Martin Ruetschi

On average, full-time employees missed 9.3 days of work last year due to illness or accident, an increase of 34% on the period before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Between 2010 and 2019, average annual absences remained relatively stable between 6.2 and 7.2 days, the SonntagsBlick and SonntagsZeitung newspapers reported on Sunday.

Even in the two coronavirus years of 2020 and 2021, workplace absences were lower than last year, at 8.1 and 7.5 days respectively.

Both sexes contributed to the upwards trend, with women logging 10.2 sick days – compared with 8 in 2019 – and men 8.9, compared with 6.8 in 2019.

Younger people were more likely to be absent: 15-24-year-olds were most affected, missing 10.4 days – an increase of around 60% since the pandemic. Absences among 25-34-year-olds also rose by almost 50% to 9.2 days.

+ Read more: Swiss industry faces record shortage of skilled workers

In contrast, among 45-54-year-olds the number of absences increased by 30% to 8.9, while the 55-64-year-olds – previously top of the absent list – managed to reduce their number of sick days from 10.2 to 9.6.

The highest absence levels were recorded in manual and service jobs such as construction, hospitality, and healthcare. Research roles, as well as the banking/insurance and farming sectors saw the least amount of sick days.

Unclear causes

The Federal Statistical Office, which published the figures earlier this year, did not comment on the causes of the rise.

The newspapers, based on interviews and other reports, suggested that one cause could be the after-effects of the pandemic. For example, they wrote, people might now be more aware of the risk of infecting others when they are sick, and thus more likely to stay at home. And non-Covid sicknesses returned with a bang last year – numbers who caught the classic flu jumped by 64% compared to 2019.

+ Read more: 40% of Swiss employees “exhausted”, unions say

The SonntagsZeitung also writes that younger people are significantly more likely to call in sick due to mental illness. The isolation and loss of workplace experience due to Covid-19 is unlikely to have helped on this front, the paper said.