A Quantitative Analysis of Absence and Unemployment Rates for Managing Staffing during Economic Recession

Leadership teams are responsible for optimum staffing according to the current economic situation. Due to a recent economic downturn, service occupation leaders were found struggling with human resource and budgetary reductions. Employee absences cost organizations millions of dollars annually from lost productivity and training expenses. This study was completed to provide quantitative data to service occupation leadership teams to determine possible relationships between the state of the economy per the unemployment rate and the number of reported absences as presented by the Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The analyses conducted were on service occupation employee absence data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2004 through 2011. Leadership teams may use the results of this study to inspire company changes resulting in attaining optimum staffing levels with budgetary constraints while avoiding gaps in customer service due to absent employees. The findings indicated that there was a moderate positive relationship between service occupation employee absence rates and the unemployment rates during those years. Leadership understanding the possibility of existing correlational relationships among service occupation employee absence rates and the unemployment rates during the years 2004 through 2011 may make organizational leadership teams more aware that any future economic situation may relate to employee absence rates. The existing relationship does not indicate causation but provides service occupation leadership teams with another tool to assist in attaining a common organizational goal of an even balance between staffing levels and available organizational resources during certain economic conditions.