Absenteeism in work is one of the major problems of human resource management in most organizations.  It is the lack of physical presence at a behaviour setting when and where one is expected to be (Harrison and Price, 2003)[i]. To these costs, the difficulties of replacement of employees will incur huge indirect costs to the organizations (Gaudine and Saks, 2001)[ii]. Absenteeism is influenced by dozens of interrelated factors which make it even more difficult to “quantity, qualify, or rectify” Tylezak (1990)[iii]. Steers, et al (1996)[iv].  Rhodes and Steers (1990)[v] propose that employee attendance is based on an employee’s motivation to attend as well as their ability to attend.  According to George and Jones (2002)[vi]  job satisfaction is one of the factors affecting an employee’s motivation to attend. Out of a total of 63 industry groups, 34 industry groups recorded higher absenteeism rate as compared to absenteeism rate at all India level. A total of 18 industry groups recorded absenteeism rates of more than 10 percent. It is observed that amongst sectors, the highest rate of absenteeism was observed in Public Sector (9.69 percent) followed by Private Sector (9.14 percent) and Joint Sector (9.08 percent). In Public Sector, the highest and the lowest rates of absenteeism were observed in Kerala (15.16 percent) and Bihar (3.75 percent), respectively. In Joint Sector, the highest rate of absenteeism was observed in Madhya Pradesh (16.80 percent), whereas, the lowest rate of absenteeism was observed in Chhattisgarh (1.90 percent). In Private Sector, the highest absenteeism rate was observed in Delhi (13.37 percent) and the lowest rate was reported in Chhattisgarh (4.25 percent).

KEYWORDS: Absenteeism, work, employee attendance, employee’s motivation, absenteeism rate