Sick-leave rates by industry (2024)
Sick-leave rate ranges from 3.8 % (IT) to 7.1 % (care).
Care and public administration top the sick-leave statistics with over 6.5 % (2024); IT and consulting are below 4 %. Sick days per employee range from 14 (IT) to over 30 (elderly care). The spread has widened further since 2019.
National average sick-leave rate 2024
National average 2024
Care
IT
Sick days per person (AOK)
Care top, IT bottom
Sick-leave rates vary substantially by industry. Care and public administration top the list at over 6.5 % (2024); IT and consulting are below 4 %. The spread is effectively a doubling — among 100 employees, 8 vs 4 are continuously off sick.
What widens the spread
The gap has widened further since 2019. In physically and emotionally demanding sectors (care, public services), staff shortages and workload density act as accelerants. In IT/consulting flexible work and remote options dampen them. Caveat: a low sick-leave rate is not automatically equal to good health — presenteeism (being at work while ill) is more common in IT/consulting than in care.
Sources
- 1
TK Gesundheitsreport 2025 — Branchenanalyse
Techniker Krankenkasse, 2025
Quelle öffnen Abgerufen: 2026-05-07 - 2
- 3
WIdO Fehlzeiten-Report 2024 — Wirtschaftszweige
Wissenschaftliches Institut der AOK, 2024
Quelle öffnen Abgerufen: 2026-05-07
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
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