The Rise in Absenteeism in 2022 Is Only Partly Due to Electronic Sick Notes

Markus M. Grabka and Oskar Breer

DIW Weekly Report, 2026, vol. 16, issue 20/21, 167-174

Abstract: In Germany, employee absences due to illness rose sharply, particularly in 2022. Various sources argue that the introduction of the electronic certificate of incapacity for work (eAU) caused this. Official data previously did not include absences that were not reported to health insurance providers; since the introduction of the eAU, this is no longer the case. This gap does not exist in Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) survey data. However, since absences also increased to a similar extent according to SOEP data, the rise is likely due to other causes. Rather, a sharp increase in respiratory illnesses as well as behavioral changes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to have altered absenteeism rates. To reduce absenteeism, which has been rising since 2008 regardless, consideration should be given to introducing partial sick leave. This would allow the current strict medical assessment of “healthy” or “sick” to be modified, thereby enabling employees to work reduced hours.

Keywords: sick leave; SOEP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_ ... 2.de/dwr-26-20-1.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwdwr:dwr16-20-1

Access Statistics for this article

DIW Weekly Report is currently edited by Tomaso Duso, Marcel Fratzscher, Peter Haan, Claudia Kemfert, Alexander Kritikos, Alexander Kriwoluzky, Stefan Liebig, Lukas Menkhoff, Karsten Neuhoff, Carsten Schröder, Katharina Wrohlich and Sabine Fiedler

More articles in DIW Weekly Report from DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bibliothek ().