More than a fifth of employees in the East of England pulled a 'sickie' in 2017, according to new research.

The majority of the 22% of workers who admitted doing so said it was because they wanted a longer weekend.

Jobs site Adzuna, which conducted the research, found that in the East employees in the property and housing industry were the most likely to fake sickness, while the region's most common 'complaint' was a stomach upset – the only area where this was the most popular excuse.

The English region with the lowest percentage of employees who faked an illness was the North East at 18%, while the highest proportion was in the South West, where more than a third (36%) admitted to pulling a sickie last year.

Combining its research from 3,500 employees with Office for National Statistics data, Adzuna estimated that 2.75 million working days were lost to sickies in 2016/17 in the East of England.