While job absenteeism rose slightly in the first quarter of 2012, absenteeism is still below prerecession levels recorded before the recession, according to Bloomberg BNA's Job Absence & Turnover Report, a quarterly employer survey.
The survey finds that median rates of unscheduled absences hit an average of 0.7 percent of scheduled worker days during the first three months of 2012, representing a slight increase from 0.6 percent in both the previous quarter and the first quarter of 2011. The first-quarter average is much lower than prerecession levels when it was 1.5 percent during the first three months of 2006.
Job absenteeism over the first quarter was not consistent across industry, work force size or regional classifications, the survey finds. Considering this lack of consistency and the lower absenteeism rates, Bloomberg maintains that it appears to be too early to declare any major resurgence in job absenteeism.
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Employee turnover earlier this year also provides no insight as to whether worker separations will return to prerecession levels in the near future, the survey finds. While the median rate of employee turnover averaged only 0.6 percent of the work force per month during the first quarter of 2012, it dropped slightly from 0.7 percent a year ago and is slightly above the record-low first-quarter average recorded in 2009 at 0.5 percent.
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