Employee No-Show Statistics (2026): Rates, Costs, Causes
Employee no-show statistics for 2026: absenteeism rates by industry, annual employer costs, root causes, and what the data says reduces no-shows.
Diego Cárdenas
Founder of Turnozo
This page compiles the most important statistics on employee no-shows and absenteeism, sourced from government data, academic research, and industry reports. We update it regularly.
Bookmark this page. Every stat is cited with its original source.
No-Show & Absenteeism Data Explorer
Interactive charts on absence rates, patterns, and costs.
BLS Table 47 (2024), CDC Foundation, Circadian, Kronos Workforce Institute
The big numbers
$225.8 billion
Total annual cost of absenteeism to US employers. That's productivity losses alone. not including replacement costs, overtime, or administrative burden. Source: CDC Foundation
$3,600
Annual cost of unscheduled absenteeism per hourly worker. For salaried employees, the figure is $2,650. The difference comes from overtime costs when replacing hourly shifts. Source: Circadian, "Absenteeism: The Bottom-Line Killer"
$1,685
Average cost of absenteeism per employee per year across all industries and worker types. Source: CDC Foundation / Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
3.2%
Average absence rate for all full-time wage and salary workers in the US (2024). That means on any given workday, about 1 in 31 employees who should be working is absent. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table 47, 2024 Annual Averages
Absence rates by industry (BLS, 2024)
All data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, 2024 annual averages. "Absence rate" means the percentage of full-time workers who were absent on an average workday.
| Industry / Occupation | Absence Rate | Illness/Injury | Other Reasons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare support | 4.3% | 3.0% | 1.3% |
| Community & social services | 4.2% | 2.7% | 1.5% |
| Building & grounds cleaning | 4.0% | 3.1% | 0.8% |
| Office & admin support | 3.9% | 2.8% | 1.1% |
| Food preparation & serving | 3.8% | 2.7% | 1.0% |
| Service occupations (all) | 3.8% | 2.7% | 1.1% |
| Sales & office (all) | 3.6% | 2.5% | 1.0% |
| Healthcare practitioners | 3.5% | 2.2% | 1.3% |
| Production, transport, materials | 3.4% | 2.5% | 0.9% |
| Total. all occupations | 3.2% | 2.2% | 1.0% |
| Construction & extraction | 3.0% | 2.2% | 0.8% |
| Manufacturing | 2.8% | 2.0% | 0.8% |
| Management occupations | 2.3% | 1.5% | 0.8% |
Source: BLS Table 47. Absences from work by occupation and industry, 2024
Key takeaway: The industries most likely to use shift scheduling. healthcare, food service, cleaning, and retail. all have above-average absence rates. These are also the industries where a no-show has the most immediate operational impact.
Absence rates by sector (BLS, 2024)
| Sector | Absence Rate |
|---|---|
| Government workers | 4.0% |
| Private sector | 3.1% |
| Agriculture | 2.8% |
| Construction | 2.8% |
| Manufacturing | 2.8% |
| Mining | 2.3% |
Source: BLS Table 47, 2024
The cost breakdown
What a single no-show costs
For a typical shift-based business with hourly workers earning €12–15/hour on 5–8 hour shifts:
| Cost Category | Estimated Range |
|---|---|
| Lost productivity (unfilled shift) | €60–120 |
| Overtime for replacement worker | €45–90 |
| Manager time finding coverage | €20–40 |
| Training/onboarding if temp hired | €50–100 |
| Customer impact (slower service, lost sales) | Varies |
| Total per incident | €175–350 |
At 3 no-shows per week, that's €27,000–54,000 per year for a single location.
Absenteeism cost by company size
| Company Size | Estimated Annual Cost |
|---|---|
| 10 employees | €16,850 |
| 25 employees | €42,125 |
| 50 employees | €84,250 |
| 100 employees | €168,500 |
Based on CDC Foundation's $1,685/employee/year figure, converted at approximate USD/EUR rate.
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Get started freeWhy employees are absent
Top reasons for unplanned absences
- Personal illness. accounts for ~69% of all absences (BLS: 2.2% illness rate out of 3.2% total)
- Family responsibilities. childcare, eldercare, family emergencies
- Personal needs. appointments, errands, car trouble
- Stress and burnout. Increasingly cited in post-pandemic surveys
- Disengagement. employees who don't feel valued are more likely to call out
The Monday/Friday effect
Employers consistently report higher absence rates on Mondays and Fridays, as well as before public holidays and major sporting events. This pattern suggests a portion of absenteeism is discretionary rather than illness-driven. If that pattern sounds familiar, the operational fix is usually not another warning. It is a better mix of attendance policy, earlier schedules, and cleaner backup coverage.
Source: SHRM Annual Survey on Employee Benefits and Absenteeism
Absenteeism by day of week
While the BLS doesn't publish day-of-week breakdowns, multiple employer surveys confirm:
- Monday has the highest absence rate (~40% above average)
- Friday has the second highest
- Tuesday–Thursday have the lowest rates
- Day after Super Bowl sees a significant spike. an estimated 17.5 million US workers missed work the Monday after Super Bowl LVIII (2024)
Sources: Kronos Workforce Institute; The Workforce Institute at UKG
Industry-specific no-show data
Restaurant industry
- Average annual turnover rate: 79.6% over the past decade (Toast/BLS)
- Food preparation & serving absence rate: 3.8% (BLS, 2024)
- Quit rate in accommodation & food services: 3.9% as of 2024, down from peak of 5.8% in 2021-2022 (BLS JOLTS)
- Labor costs typically represent 25–35% of restaurant revenue
If you run restaurants, this page pairs best with our deeper breakdowns on restaurant staffing statistics and how to reduce no-shows and call-outs, because the cost of an empty shift is rarely just the missing hours.
Retail
- Sales & related occupations absence rate: 3.0% (BLS, 2024)
- Office & admin support (including retail back-office): 3.9% (BLS, 2024)
- Holiday season no-show rates spike significantly. some retailers report 2-3x normal rates in November-December
Healthcare
- Healthcare support absence rate: 4.3%. the highest of any occupation (BLS, 2024)
- Healthcare practitioners: 3.5% (BLS, 2024)
- Lost worktime rate in healthcare support: 2.3%. meaning workers lose 2.3% of their scheduled hours (BLS, 2024)
Cleaning & maintenance
- Building & grounds cleaning absence rate: 4.0% (BLS, 2024)
- Illness/injury accounts for 3.1%. the highest illness-driven absence of any occupation
- Multi-site cleaning businesses face compounding issues: a no-show at one site requires reassigning from another
What reduces absenteeism
Scheduling software impact
- Companies using attendance tracking software report ~20% reduction in absence rates (TeamSense/industry surveys)
- Automated shift reminders reduce no-shows by 15–20% (multiple scheduling software providers)
Other interventions
- Flexible scheduling. allowing shift swaps reduces unplanned absences by giving employees alternatives to calling out
- 2-week advance scheduling. employees with more notice have fewer conflicts
- Return-to-work interviews. simply asking about an absence reduces future occurrences
- Progressive discipline. clear policies reduce chronic absenteeism, but punishing callouts the same as no-shows backfires
The pages worth reading next depend on what is broken in your operation. If you are firefighting last-minute gaps, start with how to handle last-minute shift changes. If one missing person keeps wrecking the day, read if one call-out breaks your day, you have a staffing problem. If the issue is chronic unreliability, go deeper on the real cost of employee no-shows.
Overtime and coverage costs
- Almost 50% of overtime is used specifically to cover employee absences (Circadian)
- The estimated loss of productivity from unplanned absences reaches nearly 40%. the absent worker's tasks don't fully get done even with coverage (Circadian)
- More than half of large employers (1,000+ employees) still use manual or no systematic process to manage absenteeism (SHRM)
What is actually driving your no-shows?
Pick the pattern that looks most familiar. This helps you focus on the fix instead of treating every absence the same way.
When do unplanned absences hit you most?
Warning
Treating every absence like a discipline problem is lazy management. Some no-shows come from weak policy. Others come from bad schedules and zero backup coverage. Mix them together and you fix nothing.
How to use these statistics
If you manage shift-based employees, here's what this data means for you:
- Benchmark your team. If your absence rate is consistently above 3.2% (the national average), you have a systemic issue, not just bad luck.
- Calculate your real cost. Use the $3,600/hourly worker/year figure as a starting point, then multiply by your team size.
- Focus on your industry. If you're in food service (3.8%), healthcare (4.3%), or cleaning (4.0%), expect above-average challenges.
- Invest in prevention. A 20% reduction from scheduling software on a 20-person team saves roughly €7,000–11,000/year.
Sources
All statistics on this page are sourced from:
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Table 47: Absences from work, 2024 Annual Averages
- CDC Foundation. Worker Illness and Injury Costs US Employers $225.8 Billion Annually
- Circadian. "Absenteeism: The Bottom-Line Killer" (workforce research report)
- SHRM. Society for Human Resource Management annual surveys
- Toast / BLS. Restaurant industry turnover data
- The Workforce Institute at UKG. Day-of-week and event-based absence patterns
Last updated: February 2026. We review and update this page quarterly.
No-shows are a scheduling problem at their core. Our complete scheduling guide covers how to build schedules that minimize them.
Frequently asked questions
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2024 annual data), the average absence rate for full-time wage and salary workers is 3.2%. This means on any given day, about 3.2% of workers who were supposed to be at work were absent.
The CDC Foundation estimates that productivity losses from absenteeism cost US employers $225.8 billion annually, or approximately $1,685 per employee per year.
Healthcare support occupations have the highest absence rate at 4.3%, followed by building and grounds cleaning/maintenance at 4.0%, and food preparation and serving at 3.8% (BLS, 2024).
A single no-show typically costs between $150–$300 when you factor in lost productivity, overtime pay for replacement coverage, and management time spent finding coverage. Circadian estimates unscheduled absenteeism costs $3,600 per hourly worker per year.
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