Number of sick days lowest on record

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the average number of sickness days taken by UK workers has almost halved from 7.2 days in 1993 to 4.1 days in 2017.

The average number of days taken off due to illness has been falling since 1999.

Absence rates were higher in the public sector than in the private sector last year, standing at 1.7 per cent for the private sector and 2.6 per cent for the public sector.

The ONS said: “Higher sickness absence in the public sector is partly explained by the profile of the workforce: it employs more older people and women, both of whom tend to have higher rates of sickness absence; it is more likely to employ staff with a long-standing health condition who are more likely to go off sick.”