Absenteeism rate is the share of scheduled work time lost to unplanned absence. The formula is days absent divided by available workdays, multiplied by 100. As a US benchmark, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that full-time wage and salary workers lost 1.7% of their usual hours to absence in 2025, and that 3.2% of them had an absence in a typical week.
Key takeaways
- Absenteeism rate = days absent ÷ available workdays × 100.
- Count unplanned absence. Leave out vacation, holidays and approved leave.
- The closest public benchmark is the BLS lost worktime rate: 1.7% in 2025.
- In a small team, one long illness moves the number a lot. Read it over quarters.
What is the formula?
Absenteeism rate = (days absent ÷ available workdays) × 100
Example: a team of 20 with 22 working days in the month has 440 available workdays. With 18 days of absence, the rate is 18 ÷ 440 × 100 = 4.1%
Available workdays are the days people were scheduled to work: headcount multiplied by working days, minus holidays and approved leave.
What counts as an absence?
| Count it | Leave it out |
|---|---|
| Sick days | Scheduled vacation |
| Unplanned personal days | Company holidays |
| No call, no show | Approved leave booked in advance |
| Family emergencies | Jury duty and other civic leave, if you treat it as approved |
Decide once and write it down. A rate is only comparable from month to month if the definition stays the same. Whatever you count for the metric, leave protected by law must never be held against an employee. See the attendance policy template.
What is a normal absenteeism rate?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes two measures for full-time wage and salary workers.
- 1.7%
of usual working hours lost to absence, the lost worktime rate
BLS, 2025 - 3.2%
of workers had an absence in the survey week, the absence rate
BLS, 2025 - 2.2%
had an absence because of illness or injury
BLS, 2025
- Public sector2.2%
- All full-time wage and salary workers1.7%
- Private sector1.6%
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, table 47. Annual averages for 2025, based on 11 months of data.
Two notes on reading these.
- Use the lost worktime rate to compare. It is hours absent as a percent of hours usually worked, which matches the formula above. The absence rate counts people, not days.
- The BLS leaves out vacation and holidays. It counts absences for illness, injury, medical problems, child care, other family or personal obligations, civic or military duty and parental leave. Your own figure should use a similar scope before you compare.
What other ways are there to measure absence?
Lost time rate
Hours or days lost as a share of scheduled time. The standard measure.
Shows costFrequency rate
Number of separate absences per person over a period.
Shows patternBradford factor
Spells × spells × total days. Weighs many short absences more than one long one.
Use with care
The Bradford factor rates ten single days far higher than one ten-day illness. That makes it sensitive to disruption, and it can also penalize people with chronic conditions. If you use it, use it to prompt a conversation and never as an automatic trigger.
How do you track absenteeism?
Define an absence
Use the table above and write the definition into your policy.
Record every day
Present, absent, late, leave, holiday. Gaps in the record make the rate meaningless.
Calculate monthly
Days absent ÷ available workdays × 100, for the company and for each team.
Look at the trend
Compare each team with its own last quarter, not with another team.
Break it down
By reason, by day of the week and by team. Patterns point to causes.
Act on causes
Workload, scheduling and management explain more absence than attitude does.
What does a high rate tell you?
Less than you would hope. A rate tells you how much, not why.
Questions to ask before you act
- Is one long absence driving the whole number?
- Is it one team, one shift or one manager?
- Did it rise after a change in workload or schedule?
- Are Mondays and Fridays different from midweek?
- Is the same pattern showing in overtime and late finishes?
A team working long hours for months will often show rising sickness afterwards. See signs of overwork.
Do
- Report the rate by team and over time
- Separate short-term from long-term absence
- Talk to people before you draw conclusions
- Fix scheduling and workload first
Do not
- Rank individuals by days absent
- Count protected leave
- Reward perfect attendance in ways that bring sick people to work
- React to one month's number
How does BirdsEye help you track absence?
BirdsEye records attendance from tracked working time, so the inputs to the formula are already there.
- Daily record. Each person is marked present, absent, late, on leave, on holiday or on a weekend, every day.
- Leave and holidays kept apart. Approved leave and company holidays never show as absence.
- History. A calendar and recent-attendance view for each person.
- Corrections. Any day can be corrected, with a note explaining why.
BirdsEye does not publish an absenteeism rate for you. It gives you the days absent and the days scheduled, and the division is yours. See attendance.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate absenteeism rate?
Divide the number of days absent by the number of available workdays and multiply by 100. For 18 days absent out of 440 available, the rate is 4.1%.
What is a good absenteeism rate?
There is no universal target. As a reference, US full-time workers lost 1.7% of their usual hours to absence in 2025, according to the BLS. Compare your teams with their own history first.
Does vacation count toward absenteeism?
No. Planned vacation, holidays and approved leave are left out. Absenteeism measures unplanned absence.
What is the Bradford factor?
A score that multiplies the number of separate absences by itself and then by the total days absent. It highlights frequent short absences and should be used with care.