Canary Islands absence rate at 9.4 percent, second highest in Spain

The figure and the ranking

According to the Adecco Group Institute report, of the 9.4 percent in the Canaries, 8.1 percentage points were due to certified sick leave (incapacidad temporal, or IT) and 1.3 points to absences without a medical certificate. The Spanish average for the same quarter was 7.62 percent, with a national IT rate of 5.90 percent. Infobae, citing the report, described that national figure as a record for a first quarter.

At the top of the regional table, according to the data reproduced in the press, are the Basque Country (9.9 percent), the Canary Islands (9.4), Asturias (9.3) and Cantabria (9.1). At the bottom sit the Balearic Islands on 6.2 percent, followed by Madrid (6.5), La Rioja (6.7) and Extremadura (7.0). The Balearics also record the lowest sick-leave rate, 4.6 percent, according to Diario de Mallorca.

Year on year, little has shifted in the islands: RTVC reports that the overall rate was unchanged from the same quarter of 2025, while the sick-leave component edged up one tenth of a point to 8.1 percent. For the archipelago's service sector the reports give 9.5 percent.

What the rate measures and what it does not

What is measured is the share of agreed working hours (horas pactadas) that were not worked. Holidays and public holidays are not counted, because there is no obligation to work in those hours; they drop out of the denominator. What is counted includes medically certified sick leave, paid statutory leave, personal reasons, lateness and unjustified absence. The reports explicitly separate IT from the remaining causes.

That makes the rate a poor measure of skiving. Of the 9.4 percent in the Canaries, 8.1 points carry a medical certificate, which means they rest on a diagnosis rather than on an employee's decision. On how strike days are handled, the published summaries of both reports say nothing; anyone who needs that detail has to go to the original documents.

For scale, Adecco also gives absolute figures for Spain, reported by Infobae: out of an average 142.63 contracted hours per employee per month, 10.87 hours were lost, 8.41 of them to sick leave.

Two numbers, two methods

Alongside the 9.4 percent, a second figure is circulating for the same quarter. Randstad Research draws on the INE's quarterly labour cost survey (Encuesta Trimestral de Coste Laboral) and arrives at 8.9 percent for the Canaries against a Spanish average of 7.2 percent. On that reading the islands are the third highest region, behind the Basque Country (9.4) and Asturias (9.1), but they come first for sick leave.

Atlántico Hoy, working from the same Randstad analysis, reported that 7.6 percent of working hours in the Canaries were lost to sick leave, around two points above the Spanish average of 5.6 percent. Both analyses work in shares of contracted hours, but they draw on different data sources and definitions. The values are therefore not interchangeable, even though they point the same way.

For Spain as a whole, Randstad puts the sector rates at 7.4 percent in industry, 7.2 percent in services and 6.0 percent in construction.

What lies behind it, and who blames whom

Employers point at the administration. The president of CEOE-Tenerife, Pedro Alfonso, speaks of a serious problem for productivity and competitiveness, according to El Día and RTVC, and asks why there are so many sick notes, how long they last and why the Canaries keep such high figures. He sees a great responsibility on the part of the public administration, El Día reports, because it controls most of those medical certificates, while also insisting that absence must be distinguished from fraud and that the answer cannot be to blame the worker. The vice-president of the Confederación Canaria de Empresarios, José Cristóbal García, names better management of the health service as the key.

The unions reject that framing. CCOO and UGT refuse to file medically certified leave under absenteeism: temporary incapacity, they argue, rests on a diagnosis, not on a worker's choice. In the Canaries both organisations have asked the regional government to strengthen the public health service and cut waiting lists, according to El Día. A union representative told Cadena SER that most sick leave is prolonged not by specialist appointments but by waiting times for tests, surgery and rehabilitation.

The health service numbers fit that account. According to data circulated by Efe, 34,382 people were on the surgical waiting list in the Canaries at the end of June 2026, 7.8 percent more than a year earlier, with an average wait of 107 days and a median of 70. A further 158,358 were waiting for a specialist appointment.

The archipelago's sector mix, tourism and hospitality, is often assumed to be the explanation. The reports reviewed here do not offer it as one, and the data support it only partly: in Randstad's national breakdown services sit below industry, and in the Canaries the lowest-absence sector was construction, on 7.7 percent according to Atlántico Hoy, still well above the Spanish figure for that same branch.

What it means in practice for people working here

For sick leave from ordinary illness (contingencias comunes), the general rule in Spain is that the first three days carry no statutory sick pay unless the collective agreement improves on it. From the fourth to the twentieth day the payment is 60 percent of the regulatory base, and from day 21 it is 75 percent. Days four to 15 are borne by the employer, and from day 16 by the social security body INSS or the mutua; it is normally paid through the payslip (pago delegado). Accidents at work and occupational illness are covered by more favourable rules.

The sick note itself (parte de baja) is issued, under Real Decreto 625/2014, by the public health service doctor who examined the patient; for accidents at work and occupational illness the responsible mutua can issue it. Since the 2023 reform employees no longer have to hand a paper copy to their employer, as it is transmitted electronically to the INSS and the company.

The self-employed have a Canary-specific option. According to Maspalomas News and Elapurón, the regional government pays a grant of up to 700 euros covering social security contributions for the first two months of sick leave, backdated to 1 January 2026. Conditions include tax residence and activity in the islands and being up to date with the tax office, social security and the Canary tax agency.