Table 11. Employed persons and absence from work during the whole survey week by reason for absence and sex(1). 1000 and per cent

LABOUR FORCE SURVEY, 1st Qu. 2004
11	Employed persons and absence from work during the whole survey week by reason for absence and sex¹. 1000 and per cent

	Annual average		2002	2003				2004

	2002	2003	4th quarter	1st quarter	2nd quarter	3rd quarter	4th quarter	1st quarter


	1000

EMPLOYED PERSONS	2 286	2 269	2 267	2 261	2 275	2 278	2 260	2 255
At work	1 912	1 914	1 968	2 008	1 949	1 714	1 985	1 967
Temporarily absent	374	354	299	253	326	564	275	287
Illness²	92	88	91	91	84	76	99	96
Holiday	168	157	83	52	117	396	62	77
Taking time off/working time arrangement	46	44	54	46	51	33	45	51
Other reasons/unspecified	68	67	72	64	74	59	69	63

MALES	1 210	1 198	1 199	1 197	1 203	1 199	1 192	1 191
At work	1 044	1 040	1 065	1 091	1 062	931	1 076	1 061
Temporarily absent	166	158	134	106	141	268	116	130
Illness²	40	37	40	38	36	35	41	41
Holiday	85	79	45	26	58	202	31	41
Taking time off/working time arrangement	26	25	33	26	27	20	28	30
Other reasons/unspecified	14	16	16	16	20	12	17	19

FEMALES	1 076	1 071	1 068	1 064	1 072	1 079	1 068	1 063
At work	867	874	903	917	887	783	909	906
Temporarily absent	209	197	165	147	185	296	159	157
Illness²	52	50	51	53	48	42	59	55
Holiday	83	78	38	26	59	194	32	36
Taking time off/working time arrangement	20	18	21	20	23	13	17	22
Other reasons/unspecified	54	51	56	48	55	47	52	44

	Per cent of employed persons

ABSENCE, TOTAL	16.4	15.6	13.2	11.2	14.3	24.8	12.2	12.7
Males	13.7	13.2	11.2	8.9	11.7	22.4	9.8	10.9
Females	19.4	18.4	15.5	13.8	17.2	27.4	14.9	14.8

Illness²	4.0	3.9	4.0	4.0	3.7	3.4	4.4	4.3
Males	3.3	3.1	3.3	3.2	3.0	2.9	3.4	3.4
Females	4.8	4.7	4.7	5.0	4.5	3.9	5.5	5.2

Holiday	7.4	6.9	3.7	2.3	5.1	17.4	2.8	3.4
Males	7.0	6.6	3.8	2.2	4.8	16.8	2.6	3.4
Females	7.7	7.2	3.5	2.4	5.5	18.0	3.0	3.4

Taking time off/working time arrangement	2.0	1.9	2.4	2.0	2.2	1.4	2.0	2.3
Males	2.2	2.1	2.7	2.2	2.3	1.7	2.3	2.5
Females	1.9	1.7	2.0	1.9	2.2	1.2	1.6	2.0

Other reasons/unspecified	3.0	2.9	3.2	2.8	3.3	2.6	3.0	2.8
Males	1.2	1.3	1.4	1.3	1.6	1.0	1.4	1.6
Females	5.0	4.7	5.2	4.5	5.1	4.4	4.9	4.2

¹ Alternating holidays influence figures on absence. This will often cause break in series. ² Compared to the same quarter one year before, there is a decrease in the number of persons who were temporarily absent due to illness, from the 4th quarter 2002 to the 3rd quarter 2003. This is mainly due to the increased use of a new arrangement where persons are allowed to perform work during their sickness absence. In the LFS these persons are classified as employed at work if they performed any work during the survey week. The sickness absence statistics which are based on other information, show continued increase in sickness absence for the whole periode.