The graph below shows the percentage of workers from five different European countries that were absent for a day or more due to illness from 1991 to 2001.

The line graph depicts changes in the percentages of workers’ sickness absence in 5 countries in the period 1991-2001. As can be seen from the chart, the Netherlands employees had the most days off

whereas

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the Germans took the fewest.

In addition

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,

while

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all the countries witnessed substantial changes, the proportions of Germany and the UK were rather consistent. To commence with, the absence rate of the Netherlands reached a high of 5.6% in the first 2

years

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,

whereas

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the French remained flat at 5%. In the next 4

years

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, both figures experienced a dip at 4% and 3.2% respectively, and following the

last

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5

years

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, they diverged with the Netherlands increasing steadily and ending at 5.5% and the French fell and levelled off at around 3%. In terms of Sweden, the absence percentage remained around 3% of the workers there from sickness from 1991 to 1995. In the next 6

years

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,

however

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, it rose considerably and peaked at roughly 4.6% in 2001. Regarding the UK and Germany, the workers there took far fewer days off than in the two aforementioned countries. They initiated at 2.7% and 1.3% sequentially and fluctuated in an upward trend throughout the time span.

At the end

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of 2001, the percentage of English was 2.8%

while

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that of the Germans was 1.4%.