10    Sickness absence man-days1 for employees with sickness absence certified by a doctor,
by county of residence. Figures and per cent of scheduled man-days (sickness absence rate).
Men. Quarterly figures.

  Quarter 4 2004 Quarter 1 2005 Per cent
  Sickness absence-
man-days
Change last year Sickness absence-
man-days
Change last year Quarter 4 20031 Quarter 1 2004 Quarter 4 2004 Quarter 1 2005
TOTAL 2 594 995 -891 365 2 548 614 -777 064 6,0 5,9 4,4 4,7
   Østfold 170 131 -68 016 161 207 -66 611 7,5 7,3 5,2 5,4
   Akershus 279 732 -81 306 272 696 -75 732 5,5 5,3 4,1 4,4
   Oslo 284 165 -69 918 278 330 -62 103 5,2 5,0 4,0 4,3
   Hedmark 112 448 -42 915 112 309 -43 456 7,0 7,1 5,0 5,4
   Oppland 114 174 -39 417 109 504 -36 610 6,9 6,8 5,1 5,3
   Buskerud 152 639 -56 039 151 050 -53 556 6,5 6,5 4,7 5,0
   Vestfold 117 723 -43 486 114 911 -35 097 6,0 5,7 4,3 4,6
   Telemark 96 037 -43 436 93 790 -38 356 7,0 6,9 4,8 5,1
   Aust-Agder 58 931 -16 844 56 396 -15 987 6,2 6,1 4,7 4,9
   Vest-Agder 87 555 -42 305 84 656 -38 839 6,8 6,5 4,4 4,5
   Rogaland 182 648 -56 591 179 039 -43 296 4,6 4,4 3,4 3,6
   Hordaland 250 827 -88 450 255 687 -66 035 5,8 5,6 4,2 4,6
   Sogn og Fjordane 54 793 -17 909 53 415 -15 141 5,5 5,4 4,1 4,4
   Møre og Romsdal 130 670 -41 743 124 899 -38 678 5,8 5,6 4,3 4,4
   Sør-Trøndelag 161 477 -53 197 160 251 -37 016 6,1 5,8 4,5 4,8
   Nord-Trøndelag 67 792 -30 853 68 668 -22 051 6,7 6,3 4,5 5,0
   Nordland 128 981 -54 086 131 778 -45 654 6,8 6,7 4,7 5,3
   Troms 99 485 -26 816 97 790 -23 864 6,7 6,5 5,2 5,6
   Finnmark 44 635 -17 922 42 003 -18 965 7,7 7,8 5,5 5,7

1  Easter was in the first quarter in 2005, and in the second quarter in 2004. This is influential when we compare first quarter figures from these two years. Both man-days lost due to sickness absence and scheduled man-days decrease significantly during Easter compared to a normal week at this time of the year. Easter has stronger influence on scheduled man-days than on man-days lost due to sickness. If we did not take the easter week into account the sickness absence rate would have dropped nearly 0.1 percentage points for most of the groups.