One bright side of the recession, at least for employers, is that employees are arriving on time more often. According to a CareerBuilder survey released this morning, 15 percent of workers confessed they arrived late to work once a week or more, down from 16 percent in 2009, and 20 percent in 2008.

“Whether it is a result of fear associated with the economy or just a shift in attitude, workers over the last few years are doing a better job of managing their schedules and getting into the office at the designated time,” Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder said in a statement, adding that workers should always be honest with their employers about the reason for being late.

The most common reason offered, at 30 percent, was traffic. Lack of sleep was second, at 19 percent. Bad weather was the third most-frequent reason, at 9 percent, followed by 8 percent of those incurring delays in getting children to school. Public transportation, dealing with pets, and “wardrobe issues” were also commonly cited.

They just have to be careful of course. Nearly one-third of employers said they have fired an employee for being late.

Of course, some of them may have been presented with one of the wilder excuses listed in the survey, including: being attacked by a cat, karma out of sync, an injury from taking a fork out of the dishwasher, and a car inhabited by bees.

The Chicago-based job search firm conducted a national survey of nearly 2,500 employers and 3,000 employees between November 15 and Dec. 2, 2010.