A regional study by Umivale Activa and Ivie reveals that absences due to temporary incapacity accounted for 5.71% of potential workdays in 2024, compared to 3.83% in 2018. This increase, representing seven more days of annual absence per worker (an average of 21 days), is five points higher than the growth seen across Spain (44%). The phenomenon is concentrated among 12.3% of workers, who account for 60.8% of all absences.
Among the causes for the increase are a rise in absences due to mental health issues, particularly since the pandemic, an aging population, and the saturation of the public healthcare system. Trade unions advocate for recognizing work-related conditions as occupational diseases, while employers suggest that mutual insurance companies manage temporary incapacity or that benefits be revised.
By sector, administrative and auxiliary services activities show the highest rate (10.05%), followed by healthcare activities (7.98%) and water and sanitation (6.76%). The province of Valencia leads absenteeism with 6% of lost workdays, followed by Castellón (5.5%) and Alicante (5.2%).
The most common pathologies are algias (33.3%) and mental health problems (21.1%), with the latter showing the largest increase compared to 2018 (+50.7%). Long-term absences (over a year) account for 29% of lost workdays, with an increase of 141% in processes exceeding 365 days since 2018.
The economic cost of temporary incapacity in the Valencian Community reached 8.07 billion euros in 2024, 63.6% more than in 2018. Only 22.3% of absences longer than a year ended with the recognition of permanent disability, a percentage lower than the national average.
