More than a third of employers say that long-term sick absences increased last year, according to a report by the EEF manufacturers' body and insurance company Unum.

The report revealed that 36% of employers saw long-term sickness - where an employee is off for more than a month - rise between 2007 and 2008.

"Employers can do a lot to address this sickness absence through better management," said Sayeed Khan, chief medical advisor at the EEF.

Despite the rise in long-term sick absences overall sick levels in the UK have actually fallen, with smaller companies enjoying the lowest sick absence rate with an average of just 6.4 days taken off per employee last year.