The 2022 absence rate “makes absolutely no sense,” exclaimed former Blackrock portfolio manager Edward Dowd. “Something’s going on with our workforce that we’ve never seen before. And it’s gone so far above trend — it’s a health concern.”
“Absences are defined as instances when persons who usually work 35 or more hours a week worked less than 35 hours during the reference week for one of the following reasons: Own illness, injury, or medical problems; child-care problems; other family or personal obligations; civic or military duty; and maternity or paternity leave. Excluded are situations in which work was missed due to vacation or personal days, holiday, labor disputes, and other reasons. For multiple jobholders, absence data refer only to work missed at their main jobs. The absence rate is the ratio of workers with absences to total full-time wage and salary employment,” explained Mr. Dowd on his website.
He noted, “In relative terms, the deviation from trend in 2022, for the total (men+women) full-time workers was about 70%.”
“And that number [absence rates] went up three standard deviations off of trend (2003 to 2019)” in 2020, Mr. Dowd explained. In geek-speak, the chance of something three standard deviations above the mean is 0.3 percent.
Originally Published on DailyClout