"Figure 7: The sickness absence rate has been consistently higher for public sector employees over the decade","" "Sickness absence rateĀ¹, by public and private sector, UK, 2010 to 2020","" "","" "Notes","1. The sickness absence rate is the percentage of working hours that are lost because of sickness absence." "Unit","% - Sickness absence rate" "","" "Year","Public","Private" "2010","3.1","1.9" "2011","2.9","1.8" "2012","2.8","1.9" "2013","2.9","1.8" "2014","2.9","1.7" "2015","3.0","1.8" "2016","2.9","1.7" "2017","2.6","1.7" "2018","2.7","1.8" "2019","2.8","1.7" "2020","2.7","1.6"