Burnout in care work: duration per case by occupation (2023)
Care and health occupations lead on burnout duration per case.
Supervisory staff in health and care have the longest burnout sick leave of any occupational group reported by WIdO at 43.9 days per case, followed by specialist nursing at 32.7 days and care of the elderly without specialisation at 24.4 days (Fehlzeiten-Report 2024, fig. 21.56, data year 2023). The reference unit is the individual burnout case, not a population. WIdO does not publish burnout statistics broken down by economic sector, so sector comparisons cannot be derived from this source.
Health and care supervision per burnout case (WIdO Fehlzeiten-Report 2024, data year 2023)
Supervision health/care per burnout case
WIdO Fehlzeiten-Report 2024, data year 2023
Specialist nursing per case
ibid.
Elderly care (unspecialised) per case
ibid.
Dialogue marketing per case
lowest reported value
Care and health occupations lead on duration per case
The WIdO Fehlzeiten-Report 2024 reports sick days per burnout case by occupational group (fig. 21.56, data year 2023). At the top are supervisory staff in health and care with 43.9 days and specialist nursing with 32.7 days. Care of the elderly without specialisation stands at 24.4 days. The reference unit is the individual burnout case, not a population.
Drivers in the care sector
The following factors are regularly named as drivers in the occupational-science debate. That does not imply a quantified contribution of any individual factor to the burnout burden.
- Staff shortages and high patient ratios
- Shift work, weekend and night duty
- High emotional load through patient contact
- Low control combined with high responsibility
- Increasing bureaucratic documentation
Sources
- 1
Fehlzeiten-Report 2024, Kapitel 21, Abb. 21.56: AU-Tage je Fall der Diagnosegruppe Z73 nach Berufsgruppe
Wissenschaftliches Institut der AOK (WIdO), 2024
Datenjahr 2023. Bezugsgröße: AU-Tage je Burnout-Fall. Das WIdO gliedert Z73 nach Beruf, Alter und Geschlecht, nicht nach Wirtschaftszweig.
Quelle öffnen Abgerufen: 2026-08-24
We use deeplink-friendly originals. Charts are redrawn from the data - no 1:1 copies. For Statista data the underlying primary source (e.g. WIdO, AOK) is named explicitly.
Further reading
Related datasets
Burnout burden AOK 2024
186,0 Tage · Sick days per 1,000 AOK members, diagnosis group Z73 (WIdO Fehlzeiten-Report 2025, data year 2024)
Sickness rate 2024
5,80 % · Statutory health insurance sickness rate, annual average 2024 (Federal Ministry of Health, GKV statistics KM1)
Turnover costs
50–200 % · Replacement cost per employee as a share of annual salary (Gallup 2019)
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