Labor Availability

Employee Absentee Rates

North Dakotans’ propensity toward low absenteeism begins in high school – we have the second highest average daily attendance as a percentage of fall enrollment in our high schools.  For businesses, this translates into workers who have grown up with the values of dedication and reliability.

“As a person from North Dakota who interacts with offices and vendors in major U.S. and European cities on a weekly basis, I am constantly amazed when conference calls or meetings get canceled or rescheduled due to contacts being unable to attend due to weather issues at these other sites.  Among my counterparts, these situations have gone a long way to dispel the perception of North Dakota having the lock of inclement weather when I’m the one who always shows up,” says Kathi Schwan, director with Navteq, a company that creates digital maps to power navigation and location-based services around the world.

Consider this: Over 85 percent of the North Dakota employers in one labor study indicated their daily absenteeism is less than 6 percent. In fact, many North Dakota businesses don’t even consider absenteeism as a cost of doing business. Look at these statistics: