Canadians lost more than 20 hours of work to the H1N1 virus in November, a loss of productivity comparable to that of the Ontario-U.S. power outage of 2003.
The group that took most of the brunt of that absenteeism was workers between 30 and 44 years old. As well, employees with children lost twice as many hours, on average, as those without kids, says a study published today by Statistics Canada.
About 1.5 million people called in sick with flu symptoms - about 9% of the workforce between 15 and 69 years old. They lost almost 20 hours of work apiece, on average.
