New from StatsCan: Understanding public–private sector differences in work absences

Did you know that in 2012, "full-time employees in the public sector took 12.4 days off for sickness and personal or family responsibilities, compared with 8.3 days in the private sector—a difference of 4.1 days"?*

Now, since you are all statistically literate and not able to be lured into an indignant diatribe by a few numbers pulled out of context... I bet you're going to want to know more about the background behind those numbers, right?  Fortunately, Statistics Canada has the details!

From the Insights on Canadian Society series, the new study Understanding public–private sector differences in work absences does the digging for you:

Absences from work can be expressed in terms of days lost per year, on the basis of Labour Force Survey data. In this In Brief, the new data on work absences for 2012 are introduced, and the differences between private and public sector employees’ absences are examined in more detail.

And on a completely different topic... Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!  Argh!