Construction sector loses 16,000 man-years to sick leave

Sick leave in the Norwegian construction industry totalled four million working days in 2025, according to NAV. That equals 16,000 man-years and costs NOK 16.8 billion. NHO Construction now launches a calculator to help companies reduce absenteeism.

Sick leave hits projects directly. Progress stalls. Teams must be reorganised. Companies foot the bill, while individual workers can remain off work for extended periods.

“Sick leave is one of the industry’s biggest challenges. It’s expensive for companies, it impacts projects and progress, and it can have serious consequences for individuals. Many have also lacked good tools to get a fact-based picture of the situation,” says Nina Solli, CEO of NHO Construction.

New calculation tool

The IA Industry Programme for Construction now launches a new sick leave calculator in partnership with NHO Construction. The tool is available to all companies across the construction sector.

The calculator enables companies to calculate what absenteeism actually costs their business and the potential savings from reducing it. The tool also provides access to statistics and visualisations for the industry, broken down by geography, age, gender, diagnoses, occupational groups, duration and partial sick leave.

“The sick leave calculator makes it easier to make better decisions and work systematically to reduce absenteeism,” says Solli.

Positive pilot test

Øyvind Hove at Backe has tested the solution.

“I’m looking forward to having a calculator we can control ourselves that provides more fact-based information for our industry. With concrete figures and calculations, we can also link this to costs and strategic priorities in a better way. The goal is to have everyone at work,” says Hove.