Employee absence statistics for 2026 using the latest BLS annual data: national, occupation and industry rates, lost-worktime math, sources and methodology.
The 2025 US absence rate for full-time wage and salary workers was 3.2%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics Table 47. The illness or injury rate was 2.2%, while other qualifying reasons accounted for 1.0%.
No. The BLS absence rate includes full-time employees who worked fewer than 35 hours in the reference week because of illness, injury, childcare, family or personal obligations, civic or military duty, or parental leave. A no-show is a narrower workplace term for missing a scheduled shift without adequate notice.
In the 2025 BLS table, personal care and service occupations had a 4.3% absence rate, healthcare support had 4.1%, and food preparation and serving had 4.0%.
Multiply employees by their usual weekly hours and the lost-worktime percentage divided by 100. At 100 employees, 40 hours and 1.7%, the result is 68 hours per week. Multiplying by 52 gives a 3,536-hour illustration, not a forecast or a wage cost. Use the hours-based lost-worktime rate, not the percentage of workers absent.
A CDC Foundation analysis published in 2015 estimated $225.8 billion in annual US productivity losses from worker illness and injury, or $1,685 per employee. It is a dated benchmark, not a 2026 current-dollar estimate.
Get practical ideas
Open a ready-made prompt to summarize the article and apply it to your team.
The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics annual data puts the US employee absence rate at 3.2%. The corresponding lost-worktime rate is 1.7%, meaning absences account for 1.7% of the hours full-time wage and salary employees usually work.
This reference page contains the 2025 national benchmark, occupation and industry comparisons, transparent lost-hours calculations, a source table, and the definitions you need before citing the numbers.
Quote-ready summary: In 2025, the US absence rate for full-time wage and
salary workers was 3.2%, according to BLS Table 47. Personal care and service
occupations had the highest listed occupational rate at 4.3%, followed by
healthcare support at 4.1% and food preparation and serving at 4.0%. The BLS
lost-worktime rate was 1.7%.
Quick employee absence statistics
3.2%: total US absence rate for full-time wage and salary workers in 2025.
2.2%: absence rate attributed to illness or injury.
1.0%: absence rate attributed to other qualifying reasons.
1.7%: share of usual work hours lost to absences.
4.3%: personal care and service occupation absence rate, the highest listed occupational rate.
4.1%: healthcare support occupation absence rate.
4.0%: food preparation and serving occupation absence rate.
4.2% vs 3.0%: public-sector and private-sector absence rates.
121.3 million: full-time wage and salary workers represented in the BLS table.
68 hours per week: illustrative lost time for 100 employees scheduled for 40 hours each at the 1.7% national lost-worktime rate.
$225.8 billion: CDC Foundation's 2015 estimate of annual US productivity losses from worker illness and injury.
BLS 2025 annual data
Employee absence rate explorer
Compare absence rates by occupation or industry. The US benchmark is 3.2%.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPS Table 47, 2025. Components may not sum to the displayed total because of rounding. The 2025 estimates exclude October and are not strictly comparable with earlier annual averages.
What the BLS absence rate actually measures
The BLS definition is broader than a workplace no-show. It covers full-time employees who usually work at least 35 hours but worked fewer than 35 hours during the reference week for one of these reasons:
their own illness, injury, or medical problem
childcare problems
other family or personal obligations
civic or military duty
maternity or paternity leave
It excludes vacation, personal days, holidays, labor disputes, and other reasons outside the definition. It also excludes self-employed workers.
A no-show is narrower: someone misses a scheduled shift without adequate notice. The public BLS table does not isolate that behavior, so the 3.2% national absence rate should not be presented as a 3.2% no-show rate.
That distinction matters. Absence data can help managers plan capacity, but it cannot tell you how many people failed to communicate or violated an attendance policy.
Absence rates by occupation
These are occupation-level rates from the 2025 BLS annual table. Occupation describes the work a person does, not the industry that employs them.
The highest listed rate was 4.3% for personal care and service occupations, about 34% above the 3.2% all-occupation rate. Healthcare support was close behind at 4.1%.
Absence rates by industry
Industry describes the employer's business. A cook working in a hospital, for example, can sit in a food-service occupation while being employed in the healthcare industry.
The 4.2% public-sector rate was 40% higher than the 3.0% private-sector rate. Health care and social assistance was 27% above the private-sector benchmark.
Translate 1.7% lost worktime into staffing capacity
The lost-worktime rate is often more useful for scheduling than the worker absence rate because it measures hours missed as a share of hours usually worked.
For 100 full-time employees who usually work 40 hours per week:
100 employees x 40 hours x 1.7% = 68 hours lost per week
Annualized across 52 weeks, that is 3,536 hours, or the equivalent of about 1.7 full-time 40-hour schedules. This is an illustrative capacity calculation, not a forecast for every team. Your actual rate depends on workforce mix, seasonality, leave policy, and the way absences are recorded.
Use the 1.7% lost-worktime rate, not the 3.2% worker absence rate, for this calculation. The first measures hours; the second measures people. The calculator assumes the same team, usual hours and lost-worktime rate for all 52 weeks. Its result is not a forecast, a count of no-shows or a wage-cost estimate. For mixed hours, use the team's average usual weekly hours; the BLS benchmark covers full-time wage and salary workers who usually work at least 35 hours.
Absence Hours Calculator
Model lost work hours for a full-time team. The 52-week result holds your assumptions constant.
Illustrative lost worktime:
3,536.0
hours over 52 weeks
That is about 68.0 usual work hours per week. Compare the scenario with your own absence records; it does not estimate pay or replacement-cover costs.
The cleanest widely cited public cost estimate is old enough to need a warning label. In 2015, the CDC Foundation reported that worker illness and injury cost US employers $225.8 billion per year in lost productivity, equal to $1,685 per employee.
That figure is useful as historical context, not as a 2026 current-dollar benchmark. It should not be silently inflation-adjusted or mixed with the BLS absence rate as if both came from the same study.
For an individual team, build the cost estimate from records you control:
scheduled hours missed
paid leave or direct wage cost
overtime or replacement coverage
manager time spent finding coverage
measurable lost output, refunds, or service delays
This produces a defensible local estimate instead of a universal cost-per-no-show number that may not fit your operation.
What managers can actually change
Managers cannot schedule away illness or family emergencies. They can reduce the operational damage and remove avoidable friction.
Publish schedules earlier. More notice gives employees time to raise conflicts before the shift.
Collect availability before assigning shifts. A schedule built against real availability starts with fewer collisions.
Make shift swaps visible and documented. Employees have a clean route to solve a conflict without leaving the manager to reconstruct a text thread.
Use open shifts for replacement coverage. A known pool of available employees is safer than calling down a stale contact list.
Keep clock and timesheet records together. Managers can compare scheduled hours, worked hours, overtime, and absence patterns without guessing.
Separate absence from misconduct. Illness, approved leave, a communicated callout, and a no-show are not the same event.
This page uses BLS Current Population Survey Table 47 for 2025. The absence rate is the ratio of workers with qualifying absences to full-time wage and salary employment. The lost-worktime rate is hours absent as a percentage of hours usually worked.
The 2025 annual figures are 11-month averages that exclude October because CPS data were not collected during the federal government shutdown. BLS also introduced the 2022 Census industry classification system with January 2025 data. For both reasons, BLS says the 2025 estimates are not strictly comparable with earlier annual averages. This page does not claim a year-over-year trend.
The 68-hour weekly example applies the 1.7% national lost-worktime rate to 4,000 usual weekly work hours. The 3,536-hour annual figure multiplies that weekly result by 52. Both are planning illustrations, not observed Turnozo customer outcomes.
Calculator check, October 7, 2026: the national rates and denominator definitions were checked against BLS Table 47 as archived on October 4, 2026. The benchmark remains the 2025 annual estimate; the calculator update does not introduce a new data release.
