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Britain’s workforce has never been more stressed – that’s the conclusion of a huge study on sick leave that charts the trends year on year. The number of working days lost through sickness had been falling steadily for 20 years, until 2011 when it started to rise. More mental illness accounts for a lot of that increase. That, and muscle and bone injuries among older people doing physical work. In total, people in Britain took 34 million more days off sick in 2016 compared with 2011, at a cost to employers of £18 billion per year. A consultancy called First Care does this research and David Hope is the executive. He explains the findings to Winifred Robinson. First broadcast on You & Yours, 1 March 2017.