Employee Burnout Statistics 2026

As of August 2026, 29% of U.S. employees say they always or very often feel burned out at work.

As of August 2026, roughly half of U.S. employees (48%) reported feeling stressed a lot of the day yesterday.

Meanwhile, 20% felt lonely and 18% felt angry a lot of the day yesterday.

As of August 2026, 49% of U.S. employees are thriving, 47% are struggling and 4% are suffering in their wellbeing.

The Burnout Report 2026 reveals the risk of burnout remains stubbornly high, with 9 in ten (91%) adults experiencing high or extreme levels of pressure and stress in the last year, the same level as in the previous two years.

It’s no surprise that nearly half of employees (48%)—and more than half of leaders (52%)—say their work feels chaotic and fragmented.

Around two in five (43%) say that during their workday, they typically feel tense or stressed out.

As of May 2025, 40% of employees worldwide experienced stress a lot of the day yesterday.

Worry followed at 38%, sadness at 23%, anger and loneliness each at 22%.

In 2025, 56% of employees worldwide were struggling, 34% were thriving and 9% were suffering in their wellbeing.

The 2026 edition finds that global employee engagement fell to 20% in 2025, its lowest level since 2020, costing the world economy an estimated $10 trillion in lost productivity.

Last year, low engagement cost the world economy approximately $10 trillion in lost productivity, or 9% of GDP.

According to the 2026 State of the Global Workplace report, the largest year-over-year drop in manager engagement occurred between 2024 and 2025, when it declined by five points from 27% to 22%.

Globally, an estimated 12 billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety at a cost of US$ 1 trillion per year in lost productivity.

16% of working-age adults were estimated to have a mental disorder in 2023.

workers mention overall fatigue most frequently (37%), followed by headaches and eyestrain (35%), stress, depression or anxiety (29%, +2 pp compared to April -May 2022)

More than four in ten workers across the EU (44%) report that they are exposed to severe time pressure or overload of work .

Of the nine health issues covered in the survey, workers mention overall fatigue most frequently (37%), followed by headaches and eyestrain (35%)

In 2024/25, there were an estimated 964,000 workers suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety.

This represents 2,770 per 100,000 workers and resulted in an estimated 22.1 million working days lost.

The number of new cases was 409,000, an incidence rate of 1,180 per 100,000 workers.

The total number of working days lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2024/25 was 22.1 million days.

In 2024/25, work-related stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 52% of all work-related ill health and 62% of all working days lost due to work-related ill health (22.9 days lost per case).

The sickness absence rate in 2025 was 2.0%, which is unchanged from 2024; the sickness absence rate is defined as the percentage of working hours lost because of sickness or injury.

An estimated 148.8 million working days were lost because of sickness or injury in 2025; this is, on average, 4.4 days lost per worker.

Minor illnesses continue to be the most common reason given for sickness absence in 2025, accounting for 30.4% of occurrences of sickness absence, followed by: "other" conditions at 15.6% musculoskeletal problems at 14.6% mental health conditions at 8.9% gastrointestinal problems at 6.6%

The average number of absence days per employee per year has risen to 9.4 days, the highest in a more than 15 years.

A notable minority report feeling exhausted (23%) or under excessive pressure (21%).

64% of organisations are taking steps to identify and/or reduce stress in the workplace but only 50% believe their efforts are effective.

This year’s report reveals one in five workers (20%) took time off sick due to poor mental health caused by stress , remaining level with the previous year.

One in four (27%) workers who took time off due to extreme levels of pressure or stress said they did not receive any support after they had returned to work, and only 17% had a formal return-to-work plan put in place.

The broad industry categories of Public administration and defence; compulsory social security (3,470 cases per 100,000 workers), Education (2,620 cases per 100,000 workers), Human health and social work activities (2,830 cases per 100,000 workers) all had significantly higher rates than the average for all industries.

The most recent data shows that females (3,220 per 100,000 workers) overall had statistically significantly higher compared to all workers (2,580 per 100,000 workers) rate of work-related stress, depression or anxiety and males (1,980 per 100,000 workers) significantly lower.

The share of teachers who reported feelings of burnout dropped to 53 percent in 2025 from 60 percent in 2024.

In 2025, 68 percent of female teachers experienced frequent job-related stress compared with 46 percent of male teachers, a difference of 22 percentage points.

The share of teachers who intended to leave their jobs fell to 16 percent in 2025 from 22 percent in 2024.

The next most commonly ranked source of stress was low salary at 39 percent.

The 2024 data reveal that more than 138,000 nurses left the workforce since 2022 and by 2029, almost 40% of nurses intend to leave the workforce, reinforcing concerns about ongoing labor shortages and systemic workforce challenges.

For the three-year period 2022/23-2024/25, Professional occupations (2,730 cases per 100,000 workers), Associate professional occupations (3,020 cases per 100,000 workers) had statistically significantly higher rates of work-related stress, depression or anxiety compared to the rate for all occupational groups (2,040 per 100,000 workers).

In this sector, 50% of workers report facing severe time pressure and overload of

Job insecurity is having a significant impact on a majority of U.S. workers’ (54%) stress levels, according to APA’s 2025 Work in America™ survey.

Economic uncertainty was a significant factor in survey responses; more than two in five (44%) employed adults said they were concerned that an economic slump, downturn or recession would cause them to be laid off, furloughed or otherwise lose their jobs in the next 12 months.

More than one in 10 (15%) workers reported experiencing what they characterized as a somewhat or very toxic workplace.

That number rises to more than three in five (61%) among workers who experience lower psychological safety at work.

Workers aged 57 and younger are more likely than those aged 58 and older to say they typically feel tense or stressed out during the workday (48% aged 18–25, 51% aged 26–43, and 42% aged 44–57 vs. 30% aged 58–64 and 17% aged 65+).

39% of workers say their level of work-related stress has increased since last year.

Just 46% of employees clearly know what is expected of them at work, down 10 points from a high of 56% in March 2020.

Employees said that the key drivers of negative impact for mental health were: poor relationships with colleagues (75%) high workload (69%) line managers not helping staff to perform well in their job (63%).

The top drivers of stress among those in the workplace were a high or increased workload, experienced by 42% of workers, followed by regularly working unpaid overtime beyond contracted hours (33%), and fears around redundancy and job security (32%).

Employees are interrupted every two minutes during core work hours—275 times a day—by meetings, emails, or chats.

Employees who feel their organization cares are 54% less likely to be job hunting and 3.2 times less likely to report frequent burnout.

Employees who feel work negatively affects their mental health were: less likely to be satisfied in their role (37% vs 93%) more likely to quit (34% vs 14%) less likely to recommend their employer (29% vs 77%) less willing to go above and beyond (39% vs 69%) less likely to make innovative suggestions (54% vs 72%).

This equated to an average of 22.9 days lost per case.

Over one in three (35%) workers said they did not feel comfortable discussing high or extreme levels of stress with a manager, an increase of 3% compared with the 2025 report.