Per cent				Relative change
	Quarter 4 2004	Quarter 1 2005	Quarter 4 2005	Quarter 1 20061	Change 1 last year	Change 4 last year
TOTAL	6,4	7,1	6,7	7,4	4,3	4,9
Østfold	7,3	7,9	7,5	8,5	8,3	3,3
Akershus	6,5	7,1	6,7	7,4	4,4	3,3
Oslo	6,2	6,8	6,3	6,9	1,8	2,2
Hedmark	7,0	7,7	7,6	8,6	12,2	9,1
Oppland	7,1	7,8	7,6	8,5	8,4	7,3
Buskerud	6,6	7,5	7,0	7,7	3,2	6,2
Vestfold	6,4	6,9	6,5	7,2	4,6	0,9
Telemark	6,9	7,4	7,2	7,8	5,1	4,1
Aust-Agder	6,5	7,2	6,6	7,2	-0,1	0,7
Vest-Agder	6,1	6,8	6,5	7,1	4,5	6,2
Rogaland	5,1	5,7	5,4	6,0	5,0	6,1
Hordaland	6,3	7,0	6,7	7,1	2,3	6,9
Sogn og Fjordane	5,8	6,6	5,9	6,7	1,1	2,8
Møre og Romsdal	6,5	7,0	6,7	7,4	5,1	4,1
Sør-Trøndelag	6,5	7,3	6,9	7,7	5,7	5,1
Nord-Trøndelag	6,5	7,4	7,2	8,1	9,3	9,9
Nordland	7,1	8,0	7,8	8,2	2,4	10,0
Troms	7,6	8,3	7,9	8,5	2,4	4,1
Finnmark	8,0	8,9	9,0	9,8	10,9	12,4
Not reported, Svalbard, Jan Mayen and Continental sh	4,7	5,0	5,1	5,3	5,7	8,6

1 Animal husbandry service activities (except veterinary activities), extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas, water transport, private households with employed persons and extra territorial organizations and bodies are not included in the sample survey about self-certified sickness absence.

2 Easter was in the second quarter in 2006, and in the first quarter in 2005. 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 absence. 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 in the first quarter of 2005.