Employees may have dodged the bullet during corporate downsizing, but they've become so shell-shocked they now take less than half of their paid leave-a paltry 8.5 days a year on average, according to a government survey.

In 2003, full-time workers at companies with 30 or more employees took an average of 47.4 percent of the paid holidays they were entitled to, or 8.5 days, says the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

The percentage is the lowest since the ministry started compiling the statistics in 1980.

An official at the ministry's Wages and Working Hours Division points to the mindset of employees, who are being asked to do more work as the number of workers decreases.

``With smaller staff sizes due to restructuring, (the employees) probably feel their colleagues would be swamped with work if they were to take all their paid holidays,'' the official said.

The ministry received valid responses from 4,192 firms.

The number of paid holidays the companies granted employees in 2003 averaged 18 days, a figure relatively unchanged for the past several years.

The ratio of paid holidays employees actually took to those granted by their employers fell below 50 percent for the first time in 2000 and dropped to 48.1 percent in 2002.

While workers at large firms with 1,000 or more employees used 53.9 percent of their paid holidays, those at midsize firms with employees numbering between 300 and 999 used only 42.3 percent.

Employees at smaller firms with a work force of less than 300 used less than 44 percent of their paid holidays.

The ratios at companies in industries such as restaurants, accommodation, wholesalers, retailers and construction were especially low at between 30 percent and 39 percent.(IHT/Asahi: November 2,2004)