Spain has registered a staggering 365-percent surge in mental health-related sick leave filings among the nation’s youth over the past seven years, the Spanish newspaper ABC reported on Monday.
The record-breaking surge, ABC detailed, has contributed to a reduction in public and private resources, a significant 33.3 billion euros (roughly $39.5 billion) expenditure at the Spanish Social Security, and a 132-percent temporary disability surge over the past decade exceeding 9.2 million cases by the end of 2025.
ABC detailed in its report it has become increasingly common to see “anxiety, stress, and mood or personality disorders” as recurring diagnoses in temporally disability reports. Filings of that nature remained “virtually stable” until the Coronavirus pandemic emergency broke out in 2020. Since then, ABC pointed out, such reports have increasingly grown.
According to the newspaper, 217,481 sick leaves were recorded for mental health reasons in 2020, surging to 446,116 by the end of 2025. The situation has led to companies now having the management of temporal disability as their second highest expense, and a “headache for public administrations and employers.”
“With attempts to control benefits having failed and the door closed on mutual insurance companies being able to approve claims, the government is now pinning its hopes for greater control on formulas such as progressive approvals or the creation of a State Observatory on Temporary Disability,” ABC’s report read.
Based on statistics consulted by the newspaper, Mondays stand as the day with the highest number of sick day requests recorded in the country. In 2025, Spanish authorities documented over 1.68 million sick days requests on Mondays, almost double the amount for similar requests made on Fridays.
“In other words, workers tend to fall ill on the first day of work and recover just before the weekend, a modus operandi that has historically affected Spain, but also countries such as Germany, where the government has launched an offensive against absenteeism,” ABC’s report read. “German workers miss almost 21 days of work per year due to sick leave, which in 2024 generated production losses of 134 billion [euros].”
According to ABC, the Spanish government will try to reach an agreement with employers and unions on measures to curb work absenteeism in he country. Some of the proposals reportedly call for a “progressive return” work formula that would allow a gradual return to work of individuals after a long illness, including part-time work and its corresponding remuneration.
“Also on the table is the possibility that workers who have multiple jobs could be on sick leave from one job and working at another,” ABC wrote. “Today, there is a record 632,000 people in this situation, with more and more workers seeking to make ends meet.”
ABC detailed that the Spanish government does not provide statistical data on the evolution of sick leave, stressing that the “information blackout on one of the black holes of the economy is the norm.”
“Meanwhile, companies criticize the bureaucratic maze that exists for management, the lack of primary care physicians and specialists in the Public Health Service, as well as medical inspectors, along with the increase in waiting lists in public health, which, according to complaints, leads to an overburdened public health system and higher spending,” ABC wrote.
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