The short version
2026 editionKey takeaways
Each takeaway links to its canonical data row. Reported figures belong to their cited producer; modeled results are labeled as calculations.
- Total employed: absence rate: 3.2% (2025 eleven-month average, excluding October).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Total employed: lost-worktime rate: 1.7% (2025 eleven-month average, excluding October).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Management occupations: absence rate: 2.5% (2025 eleven-month average, excluding October).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Management occupations: lost-worktime rate: 1.4% (2025 eleven-month average, excluding October).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Computer and mathematical occupations: absence rate: 3% (2025 eleven-month average, excluding October).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Computer and mathematical occupations: lost-worktime rate: 1.5% (2025 eleven-month average, excluding October).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Office and administrative support occupations: absence rate: 3.9% (2025 eleven-month average, excluding October).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Office and administrative support occupations: lost-worktime rate: 2% (2025 eleven-month average, excluding October).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Information: absence rate: 3.2% (2025 eleven-month average, excluding October).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Information: lost-worktime rate: 1.6% (2025 eleven-month average, excluding October).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Professional and business services: absence rate: 2.9% (2025 eleven-month average, excluding October).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Professional and business services: lost-worktime rate: 1.5% (2025 eleven-month average, excluding October).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
What do employee absenteeism statistics measure?
BLS reports worker absence and lost worktime as separate rates. A worker can be absent for only part of a reference week, so the share of workers absent is not the share of hours lost.
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| Worker group | Absence rate | Lost-worktime rate |
|---|---|---|
| Total employed | 3.2% | 1.7% |
The 2025 average excludes October because data were not collected during the federal shutdown. Industry classification changed in 2025. Do not interpret differences from other annual tables as clean year-over-year changes.
Primary source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — February 20, 2026
How do absence rates differ by occupation?
BLS reports worker absence and lost worktime as separate rates. A worker can be absent for only part of a reference week, so the share of workers absent is not the share of hours lost.
Scroll horizontally to compare all columns →
| Worker group | Absence rate | Lost-worktime rate |
|---|---|---|
| Management occupations | 2.5% | 1.4% |
| Business and financial operations occupations | 2.9% | 1.5% |
| Computer and mathematical occupations | 3% | 1.5% |
| Architecture and engineering occupations | 2.5% | 1.2% |
| Life, physical, and social science occupations | 3.2% | 1.7% |
| Community and social service occupations | 3.7% | 1.8% |
| Legal occupations | 3.3% | 1.7% |
| Education, training, and library occupations | 3.6% | 1.7% |
| Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations | 2.8% | 1.1% |
| Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations | 3.7% | 2.1% |
| Healthcare support occupations | 4.1% | 2.2% |
| Sales and related occupations | 2.8% | 1.4% |
| Office and administrative support occupations | 3.9% | 2% |
The 2025 average excludes October because data were not collected during the federal shutdown. Industry classification changed in 2025. Do not interpret differences from other annual tables as clean year-over-year changes.
Primary source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — February 20, 2026
How do absence rates differ by industry?
BLS reports worker absence and lost worktime as separate rates. A worker can be absent for only part of a reference week, so the share of workers absent is not the share of hours lost.
Scroll horizontally to compare all columns →
| Worker group | Absence rate | Lost-worktime rate |
|---|---|---|
| Information | 3.2% | 1.6% |
| Finance and insurance | 2.6% | 1.4% |
| Real estate and rental and leasing | 3% | 1.6% |
| Professional and business services | 2.9% | 1.5% |
| Professional and technical services | 2.9% | 1.5% |
| Management, administrative, and waste services | 2.8% | 1.3% |
| Educational services | 2.8% | 1.3% |
| Health care and social assistance | 3.8% | 2.1% |
| Arts, entertainment, and recreation | 3.1% | 1.2% |
| Accommodation and food services | 3.4% | 1.5% |
| Retail trade | 3.4% | 1.7% |
| Wholesale trade | 2.3% | 1.2% |
| Transportation and warehousing | 3.1% | 1.7% |
The 2025 average excludes October because data were not collected during the federal shutdown. Industry classification changed in 2025. Do not interpret differences from other annual tables as clean year-over-year changes.
Primary source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — February 20, 2026
Do these absence rates include vacation and holidays?
No. BLS excludes vacation, personal days and holidays from this measure. Qualifying reasons include illness or injury and certain family, personal, civic or military obligations.
The measure concerns people usually working full time who worked fewer than 35 hours in the reference week for a qualifying reason. For multiple jobholders, absences refer to the main job.
Primary source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — February 20, 2026
Can lost worktime be converted directly into payroll savings?
No. A national hours-based percentage does not identify paid versus unpaid hours, replacement staffing costs, or the output a team would otherwise have produced.
For internal comparison, document your own inclusion rules and denominator first. Use the downloadable definition ledger to check compatibility before calculating any local cost.
How this report was built
Methodology and limitations
- We checked every selected row against the current BLS Table 47 HTML. The download preserves the occupation or industry row and the exact total-rate column for each observation.
- We retain the two published rates independently, without multiplying by annual workdays or claiming an employer-level absence frequency. Occupational and industry views overlap and must not be added.
- The publication explicitly uses eleven months of 2025 and introduces revised industry classifications. Both qualifications travel with the data and should remain attached to citations.
What these numbers cannot tell you
- These are national survey estimates, not a benchmark for any particular employer, location or leave policy.
- Absence and lost-worktime rates have different denominators. They are not measures of burnout, engagement or employee misconduct.
- The comparison is descriptive. No effect of software, scheduling practices or employee benefits is estimated.
Freshness and corrections
Maintained by the Workspace369 editorial team. Review each annual BLS CPS absence-table release; preserve comparability notes. The edition date changes only when the evidence or content is substantively reviewed; it does not change the underlying observation period.
First edition: . Data extraction, source attribution and arithmetic checked for this edition. No independent peer review is claimed.
Found an error or a newer primary release? Send a correction with the source and affected statistic. Confirmed corrections should be recorded in the revision history before republishing.
Primary sources and provenance
Every reported numeric cell links directly to its producer. The downloads include exact table or workbook locators, observation periods, access dates, formulas and input references.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsCPS Annual Averages Table 47: absences by occupation and industry ↗Published February 20, 2026. Accessed September 13, 2026.U.S. federal government data; attribution requested. No agency endorsement.
Source file fingerprint (SHA-256)
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Made to be checked, then cited
How to cite this report
For a source-reported statistic, credit the original publisher and link to the exact row here when using our compilation. For a modeled result, cite Workspace369 and include the assumptions. Linking to this page does not make us the original producer of third-party data.
Workspace369. (2026-09-13). Employee Absenteeism Statistics by Industry and Occupation. https://workspace369.com/research/employee-absenteeism-statistics/. Primary sources and observation periods as listed in the report.