Sick Leave Days in 2025 Slightly Down, but Still Above Pre-Pandemic Levels

Rising Number of Short-Term Sick Leaves

The trend toward shorter sick leaves has continued unbroken for years. While the share of sick leave cases lasting less than three days stood at 30.5 percent in 2008, it had already risen to 41.7 percent by 2019 and reached 44.7 percent most recently. For comparison: in 1990, sick leaves of one to three days accounted for just 16 percent of cases.

Respiratory diseases caused 43.3 percent of all sick leave cases and 24.3 percent of all sick leave days. Musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders account for 11.3 percent of cases and 19.1 percent of sick leave days. Together, these two disease groups are responsible for 54.6 percent of sick leave cases.

Mental Illnesses on the Rise

Mental illnesses show an upward trend since 2018, according to the Wifo study. Although they account for only 2.9 percent of all sick leave cases, due to their duration they make up around 11.8 percent of all sick leave days. The share of these illnesses in total days lost has risen from 2.6 to 11.8 percent since 1994.

Regarding treatment options for those affected, Christine Mayrhuber of the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (Wifo) points to a clear finding: more than 94 percent of patients initially turn to general medicine. Therapeutic professions such as physiotherapy (12.2 percent) or physical medicine (8.9 percent), by contrast, are used relatively little.

Care Concentrated in General Medicine

At the same time, significant gender-specific differences emerge: women spent an average of 15.5 days on sick leave — 9.9 percent more than men, at 14.1 days. Speaking of the difference between the genders, Mayrhuber described it as "eine Entwicklung, die ich mit Sorge sehe und die wir sehr ernst nehmen müssen".

For both women and men, the duration and frequency of sick leaves increase from age 50 onward and reach their peak among employees between 60 and 64 years old. This demographic development is a central challenge: "Das Jahrhundert schont den Körper, fordert aber den Geist, und auf diese Entwicklung muss es Antworten geben", Mayrhuber warned.

There are also marked regional differences: Lower Austria tops the statistics with 17 sick leave days per employee, Vienna is close to the average at 14.8 days, and Salzburg records by far the lowest figure at 12.4 days. Despite the slight decline, sick leave figures remain higher than before the Covid pandemic.

High Macroeconomic Costs

The direct costs of illness-related absences amounted to 1.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) according to the latest available data from 2024, consisting of employer sick pay of 4.8 billion euros and sickness benefits from health insurance of 1.2 billion euros. Under simplified assumptions, total costs including lost value added could reach as much as 8.8 billion euros, or 1.9 percent of GDP.

Underreporting of short-term sick leaves partially distorts the statistics: the report states that this "spürbar auf die Krankenstandsstatistik aus[wirkt], sie verzerrt aber nicht das Gesamtbild". Assuming short-term sick leaves occur just as frequently in the private sector as in the public service, the sick leave rate would rise by roughly 16 percent according to the calculations.

Mayrhuber called for targeted outreach to close existing gaps in care: "Es braucht eine gezielte Ansprache, um diese Versorgungslücken zu schließen", the Wifo expert emphasized. On the scale of mental strain in the labor market, she said these were "gekommen, um zu bleiben".