Absentees now fewer

There's nothing like hard times to make people show up at work. The median employee absence rate for the second quarter of 1980 is one of the lowest recorded in any period since the Bureau of National Affairs Inc. began collecting the data. The survey is conducted among personnel executives affiliated with BNA.

The job absence rate for all companies dropped from a medina of 3 percent in March of this year to 2.5 percent in April, May, and June.