Statistics Norway: Skyhigh Sick Leave 'splained by Lack of Equality and 'Complexity'

Bafflement ensues upon noticing how younger (16-39) people don't want to work anymore, with many citing 'mental' problems--this is, in a nutshell, what socialism does to rich societies

Another day, another ‘strange’ occurrence, as new data released by Statistics Norway indicates that ‘more young people and women are sick’, with official sick leave reaching a 15-year high.

Both Statistics Norway, the Nordic country’s own number-crunchers, as well as state broadcaster NRK were out with reports. According to the most recent data from Q2 (2024), sick leave stood at 7.09% Statistics Norway collates both self-referred sick leave (up to 3 days, such a report does not require a doctor’s notice; in addition, if your child is sick, a parent may stay home, too) as well as doctor’s referrals.

As always, non-English content and emphases mine.

First Round of MSM Reporting

This is what NRK wrote about this on 5 Sept. 2024

From April to June this year, sickness absence in Norway was 7.1%, according to new figures from Statistics Norway and NAV [Norway’s social security admin.], which corresponds to 10.6 million lost working days.

‘This year, the decline [of reported sick leave in Q2] is much smaller than in most previous years, which contributed to an increase in seasonally adjusted sickness absence days’, says Tonje Køber, Head of Section at Statistics Norway.

Of the 7.1%, 1.1% were self-reported sickness absence, while 6% were doctor-reported sickness absence. Self-certified sickness absence increased by 21%, while doctor-certified absence increased by 8.2 per cent.

Køber explains that although self-reported sickness absence increased the most in percentage terms, these absences are shorter than sick leave. Therefore, it is doctor-certified absence that contributes most to the increase.

More Women

Women also have a higher rate of absence than men. In Q2, sickness absence for women was 9%, while the figure for men was 5.43%. This is the highest rate of sickness absence for women in the period April-June in 20 years.

And now we’re getting into the weeds of what I typically call the ‘Norwegian pseudo-ideology of equality’ [more on this in the bottom lines], for the first reaction of NAV [Norway’s social security admin.] wasn’t something like, my gosh, we need to figure out why sick leave numbers are at a 15-20 year high. No, what actually transpired is this:

Marit Hermansen, Chief Medical Officer at NAV, says dramatic changes are needed:

‘When we see that 9% of women are absent from work, we are doing them a disservice if this continues.’

This is so absurd, and, no, not ‘merely’, or even exclusively, because this sex-based discrimination is abominable (it is, no doubts about that), but the meandering ‘explanations™’ that follow Marit Hermansen’s comment:

Much of women’s absence can be explained by biology [a based comment, if there ever was one in this day and age]. At the top of the list are pregnancy, higher risk of serious illness, anxiety, depression, and arthritis.

[Hermansen] ‘But that doesn't explain everything, and certainly not the growth. A number of research programmes are looking into this, and one hypothesis is that women have a different attitude to sick leave. And we may also need to look at the fact that women often have “the double shift”’.

What Chief Medical Officer Hermansen ‘suggests™’ is that women get the short end of everything because…in a country that is renowned as an ‘equalitarian paradise’ for decades now—socialism in the north comes with heavily subsidised everything with respect to child-bearing and -rearing, although Norway’s one-size-must-fit-all approach isn’t always a good idea—‘we may also need to look at the fact that women often have “the double shift”’—is indicative of but one (maybe two, at most) things:

Socialism in Norway has failed, and now, while ‘journos’ and ‘politicos’ are hard at pretending that all is a-o.k., the data speak against it. How can it be that, specifically, both the UN’s (I know) Human Development Index and certain proxy data (for Sweden) from the EU’s Gender Equality Index regularly put Nordic countries near or at the top of any of these listings?

Above, a comparative listing from the UN’s Gender Equality Index; below, the results of the EU Gender Equality Index for Sweden (note the 81% sexual harassment rate in Sweden; I think it’s less in Norway).

Yes, there are differences, and, no, not all is perfect; but overall, if you look at these data, pray tell: how big can these sex differences really be?

NAV’s chief medical officer Hermansen looks to me as either obfuscating (i.e., saying this out of ignorance) or gaslighting (doing this on purpose).

Young People are Increasingly Unstable

Fortunately, the NRK piece, written by Vilde Haugen and Astri Marie Lovett Hageberg, also provides an additional set of, well, insights:

More People Struggle Mentally

Although the trend over time has increased for all age groups, the figures show that the change for both genders [there’s but two of them] is greatest among young people.

For the 25-39 age group, doctor-certified sickness absence is 10% higher compared with the same period in 2023. For those under 25, the figure is almost 9% [apparently, universal childcare, virtually all run by the state, has raised a generation of sissies (of both sexes)].

According to Hermansen, more and more people are taking sick leave due to minor mental disorders.

‘It's very much linked to life events. It’s young people who encounter things in life that give them stress reactions, sleeping difficulties, and a sense of not being able to do what they need to do’, she tells NRK.

Look, both my children attend school in Norway, and I can tell you that the school system is, at times, overbearing: kids must behave all the time, they shan’t yell or do kids stuff during recess (because esp. boys must not argue or fight); most teachers are women, and the gov’t ‘recommends’ (which in Norway means: orders) that ‘parents don’t speak ill of school at home’. There’s always at least two teachers per class in the same room, and on top of this, they also have stringent reporting policies about even the minutest infractions.

In combination with near-universal, state-provided childcare—as a mother, you’ll get snarky looks and weird comments if you don’t put your child into kindergarten at, or even before, age 1—the result appears to be the raising, by state institutions, no less, of a generation of pampered wimps who, due to generous, if in my opinion misleading, social(ist) policies, ensures that a hovering adult is always near from age 1 through senior high.

I’m a university professor, and I can tell you that the college students are, for the most part, extremely unprepared for adulthood: now they must figure out their way to the lecture halls all by themselves; many students continue to self-identify as pupils (elev), and I receive many emails during the term asking about, e.g., ‘where’s your office’ or ‘please tell me where I find reading stuff’. Sure, this is all a bit odd, esp. if one considers the fact that, as adults, these students are entitled to vote, drink alcohol, drive a car, and the like.

To return to the kids issues, well, what else is there to note? Personally, my main indictment is that most children have longer ‘work-days’ (in kindergarten or schools) than their parents who drop them off here or there, go to work, and pick them up afterwards. Then there’s a quick late lunch, followed by football practice or other extracurriculars, and before too long, the day is over—and children typically have super-stressful parental contact prior to going to school, during a hurried lunch, and prior to going to bed, with state employees being the primary human contact during most of their day.

Is it any wonder why, in Hermansen’s words, ‘it’s young people who encounter things in life that give them stress reactions, sleeping difficulties, and a sense of not being able to do what they need to do’?

All their live they had other people telling them what to do. It’s not rocket science, I’d add, and now we’ll go back to the ‘splainin’ by ‘experts™’ and ‘journos™’ alike.

The ‘Everything Else But…’ Approach

Hermansen, of course, says there are several factors that come into play.

‘We've had a pandemic where attitudes to sick leave may have changed. At the same time, we have expensive times, financial worries, the debate about social media [i.e., less screen time and cell phone bans in schools], and what is required of us as human beings.

And then there is this gem that encapsulates this phony ‘debate™’ for me:

Hermansen believes that we need to look at society’s attitudes to being on sick leave.

‘What we know is that for people with these ailments, it’s good treatment to actually be at work, have structure in their everyday lives, receive care from colleagues, and do something valuable’, says the chief physician [note the absence of anything smacking of friendship or other contact, let alone care, from, say, family or friends]

‘And then the person on sick leave must think that being at work is good for them.’ [hi, David Graeber and his Bullshit Jobs]

Quite tone-deaf, eh?

But very much in line with the Norwegian pseudo-ideology of socialistic equality™:

‘At the same time, workplaces must provide better organisation, and GPs must be given better tools to have good conversations with those on sick leave,’ says Hermansen.

[NRK] Do we resort too easily to staying at home?

‘I think it’s a case of misunderstood care. Giving sick leave is a bit like prescribing antibiotics—you have to give the right dose, and you have to realise that it’s not always better.’

And it’s not always the most appropriate solution to, say, non-bacterial infections. But mentioning this would be akin to having an actual conversation instead of blabbing words and boilerplate platitudes.

And if you thought that, well, that’s odd, surely Norway’s neighbours can’t look like this—well, that’s because they don’t.

Norwegian Wimps on Tour

You can imagine the above data triggering Norwegians at certain levels, levels that must, however, leave out the above-related considerations about Norway raising a generation of sissies in state institutions because ‘equality™’.

Now I present you with the follow-up piece, also appearing in NRK, on 6 Sept. 2024.

Sickness absence in Norway was at a higher level in 2023 than before the pandemic. This development differs from the neighbouring countries we often compare ourselves with:

• Sweden had a peak in sickness absence in 2020 and then a decline in 2021 and 2023.

• In Denmark, sickness absence peaked in 2022, but fell again in 2023.

So we add that, on top of the issues we mentioned above, we must also never speak of Sweden’s pandemic™ policy Sonderweg, or special path, which is, I’d argue, also visible in sick leave numbers.

To drive home this point, I’ll let Tonje Køber, Section Head at Statistics Norway, do some ‘splainin’ that, and I shall quote, ‘it's a little unclear why this is the case’.

‘But we can see that something has happened after the pandemic that means Norway’s sick leave is increasing more and not returning and stabilising as before the pandemic’…

She says it’s not because more groups with traditionally higher absenteeism are in work in Norway:

‘Norway does not have a higher employment rate for women and older people [so these are the ‘groups with traditionally higher absenteeism’ to begin with] than its neighbouring countries. ‘On the contrary, Denmark, Sweden and Finland have quite high employment rates. Sweden actually has a higher rate’, she says.

A conundrum, if there ever was one.

However, she believes that job protection and job security may explain something.

‘In Sweden and Denmark, people are more likely to lose their jobs if they are on long-term sick leave and enter other welfare schemes’, she says.

And then there is this gem from the Minister for Labour and Social Inclusion, Tonje Brenna, from the Labout Party, who ‘doesn't want to change job security in Norwegian working life in order to reduce sick leave’:

I’m not sure [not?] whether losing your job makes you healthier. I think it's a great strength of the Norwegian labour market that we have strong job security protections. There is no question of relaxing job protection.

This is followed-up by the following word salad, because it is, of course, ‘urgent to get the high sick leave figures down’. Thus spake Ms. Brenna:

‘If we don’t manage to do something now, we may have to do something much more dramatic in a decade or two. We can’t afford this over time’, says Brenna [what a profound—truism].

[NRK] But they can do it in Sweden and Denmark. Why can’t we do it in Norway?

[Brenna] ‘It’s complex and not easy to answer. I’m most worried about the fact that absenteeism is increasing the most among the youngest, with mental health as the reason, and that long-term absence is increasing. We need to get to grips with that.’

Bottom Lines

The first thing everyone needs to understand is that when a politician says, ‘it’s complex’, what is meant is: ‘I don’t want to say anything that might cause me trouble’, irrespective of whether or not said politician actually knows, or wishes to disclose, anything about the underlying conditions.

The amount of (self)deception is stunning, though: while I admit that my above characterisation of the role and negative consequences of universal, state-run childcare is coloured by my aversion to socialism, I think my arguments merit consideration, esp. in light of the—perhaps desired—consequence of placing all children into kindergarten from age 1 onwards is, obviously, the most effective way to destroy family bonds (other than, say, domestic violence).

Moreover, turnover among kindergarten staff (a lot of them work part-time, and the use of so-called vikare, or substitutes) and school teachers ensures that there is little, if any, personnel continuity. If, say, a 4 year-old or a 3rd grader might like one teacher more than others, he or she might be totally devastated by a change of personnel, become less secure, and all that. Since kids don’t see their parents that often under the conditions outlined above, who may these kids-turned-adults turn to with problems?

Bingo: their GPs, who then prescribe broad-band antibiotics vs. flu-like illnesses, antidepressants when ‘stressed’, and so it goes, to say nothing about the fact that Norway’s socialised healthcare system also means that copays are capped at some US$ 200 or the like per annum. If you think: how great if you’re chronically ill, well, yeah; but it removes any incentive not to undergo this one more test, prescribe another set of drugs, or the like, because, you know, it’s all covered.

(Fun fact: apart from low-level Aspirin and Ibuprofen, even stuff like higher-dose Aspirin, which you could buy OTC elsewhere, requires a prescription here. This isn’t to say that this is good or bad, but it also means that the way the Norwegian healthcare system is set up, one most also include consideration of the GP and healthcare staff personnel: they must have ‘things to do™’, too.)

And this all brings me to the closing argument: neither the US and Swiss systems (that are largely privatised) nor the virtually fully socialised systems in Norway or Cuba (for that matter, which also obliges GPs to do house visits) are the best way we’ve got to do this. A blend of these notions—socialised healthcare with higher insurance copays or the like—might be better.

What’s absolutely bad is the pseudo-ideological aspect of it, including the fact that parents, more often than not, in practice appear to have gladly abandoned parental responsibilities. I can’t tell you hope many times I see Norwegians being extra-happy to have dropped off their children at 7:30 a.m., sighing a happy breath of relieve.

This is, of course, insane, and it breeds a culture and mentality of irresponsibility, which is what kindergartens and schools are teaching (indoctrinating) children with.

Thus, the vicious cycle continues.