In total, 148.9 million days, equivalent to 2% of all working days in 2024 were lost due to absences for sickness and injury, albeit down slightly by 0.2% on the previous year.

Despite a slight improvement, the 2024 figure is still worse than before the pandemic, the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures showed. While this may seem like an improvement, in 2019 pre-covid the absence level was 1.9%, meaning 9.9m more days were lost last year.