Health insurance companies: a quarter-century record of sick leave

In Hesse, days off work reached a record level in 2022.

As the health insurance company DAK reported, the sick leave among its members rose by 1.6 percentage points to 5.6 percent compared to the previous year.

This is the highest value since the analysis began 25 years ago.

The sick notes of 266,000 employees in Hesse were included in the analysis by the Berlin IGES Institute.

According to this, 56 out of 1000 employees were on sick leave every day in the past year.

This is an increase of 41 percent over the previous year.

In 2022, employees with DAK insurance had an average of 20 days of absence per capita.

That was almost six days more than 2021.

Most absences were due to respiratory illnesses such as colds and bronchitis, which increased dramatically (up 174 percent).

Back pain and depression also caused many absenteeism from work.

"The high level of sick leave in Hesse is worrying and should be a wake-up call for the economy," says Britta Dalhoff, head of the DAK state representation in Hesse.