More Kiwis away from work due to sickness

Ōtepoti - The number of employed people in the March quarter this year who gave sickness, illness, or injury as the main reason they were away from all forms of work for a full week was up 67 percent compared with the same quarter last year, Stats NZ says.

Of the 2.8 million employed people in the March 2022 quarter, 44,200 were away from work for a full week because of sickness, illness, or injury, an increase of 17,700 people compared with the March 2021 quarter.

Sickness, illness, or injury as the main reason for being away from work for a full week has tended to remain fairly consistent. But in the March 2022 quarter Stats NZ says it has increased by around two thirds annually as Omicron cases began to increase in the community.

The number of people who said they were sick, ill, or injured as the primary reason that they were working fewer hours in the week than usual in their main job also increased, up 11,400 people (21 percent) compared with the March quarter last year.

People in the Household Labour Force Survey who mentioned that being sick with covid impacted their labour market activities are included in the sickness, illness, or injury group, with the March 2022 quarter showing strong growth in that group.

Despite 108,900 people being sick and working fewer or no hours, the effect of this was rather muted on seasonally adjusted hours actually worked, which only dipped 0.2 percent over the quarter.

Previously, annual changes were more evident in the covid related reasons’ group, which serves as an umbrella-term to capture broad effects of the pandemic that do not fit into our pre-existing response options.

People across the motu may still be affected by covid without being sick themselves, so Stats NZ continues to separate those responses out.