Workplace stress statistics 2026.

What is driving workplace stress.

Uncertainty is the headline driver in 2025 and 2026. In the APA Work in America 2025 survey, 54% of workers said job insecurity has significantly affected their stress at work, and 65% said recent government policy changes had affected their company. Among workers whose company went through fundamental changes, 70% said job insecurity weighs on their stress, against 39% where nothing changed.

Change itself is constant: 89% of workers said their company changed in some way in the past year, and 26% described the change as significant or transformative (APA Work in America 2025 full report). Change fatigue is part of the stress picture.

Workload, the everyday driver.

Uncertainty grabs headlines, but the everyday driver of stress is workload: more work than the time and people available. In thrive research, the gap between employees with the least and the most sustainable workload is 54 working days a year per person, a quarter of the working year. Workload is also the factor employers control most directly. See workload and capacity.

The HSE Management Standards group the causes of work-related stress into six areas: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. Demands, meaning workload and pace, come first for a reason. When demands rise without more control or support, stress rises fast.

The key numbers in one table.

What stress does to work.

Stress shows up as lost energy, focus and sleep before it shows up as absence. Among workers worried about an economic slump, 42% said work stress makes it difficult to sleep and 36% said their personal relationships suffer (APA Work in America 2025). Workers whose company was affected by policy change were more likely to report emotional exhaustion and difficulty focusing than those whose company was not.

thrive research shows what that costs: employees in the lowest capacity quarter report about 85 days a year when they cannot work effectively, against 14 in the highest. See lost working days from low capacity.

Who is most affected.

Stress is not spread evenly. In the thrive data, people six to twelve months into a new job have the least capacity of any tenure group, and age and tenure alone separate people in the same workforce by 8 to 9 points of capacity. Teams with high engagement and low capacity, the Burning out group, lose 59 days a year not working effectively, against 18 for thriving teams.

The APA survey also found that workers whose company went through policy-driven change were more likely to report lack of energy, emotional exhaustion and difficulty focusing than workers whose company did not. The pattern is consistent: the more change and uncertainty a team absorbs, the more its energy and focus suffer.

AI and technology stress.

Technology cuts both ways. 68% of workers say new technology helps them get more done, while 38% worry AI may make some or all of their duties obsolete (APA Work in America 2025 full report). Read more on technostress and AI anxiety at work.

Stress around the world.

Gallup tracks daily stress in its Gallup State of the Global Workplace report. The WHO classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed (WHO). Both point employers to the same lever: how work is organized.

What stress costs employers.

Lost working time is the largest hidden cost. thrive research values the gap between the lowest and highest capacity quarter at about €19,800 a year per employee in lost working time, at an average labor cost of €279 a day. Most of it is not sick leave but presenteeism: days at work when people cannot do their best work.

Stress also drives turnover. People who are exhausted and see no relief leave, and the people who leave first are often those with the most options. Estimate what that costs with the free calculator on the cost of employee turnover.

What managers can do this week.

Managers do not need a program to start. Ask each person in a one-to-one what is draining their energy most right now and what one change would help. Look at the team’s calendar and cancel or shorten meetings that do not need everyone. Make it clear that messages after hours can wait until the morning. And check whether anyone has not taken vacation in months.

These steps cost little and show people that stress is taken seriously. Combined with team-level measurement, they turn statistics into action.

Where the figures come from.

US survey figures come from the American Psychological Association’s Work in America survey, conducted by The Harris Poll. German absence figures come from the DAK and AOK health insurers. thrive figures come from the thrive at work white paper, first edition, 2026. Each figure on this page names its source next to it, so you can check and quote it.

Next steps.

Pick one team, measure workload, energy and recovery, agree one change and check it again in a quarter. Small, repeated steps beat a one-off stress campaign.

What employers can do.

Steps in order of impact.

1. 1
   Measure strain by team. Read stress, energy and recovery next to engagement; a committed team running low needs relief, not motivation.
2. 2
   Fix workload first. Workload alone separates employees by about 50 days a year of lost effectiveness.
3. 3
   Support managers. Manager support divides employees as sharply as workload.
4. 4
   Explain change. Uncertainty drives stress; say what is changing, why and what it means for each team.

How to measure stress at work.

Combine three sources. First, a short anonymous survey that covers workload, energy, recovery and focus alongside engagement; the free pulse question bank on our pulse survey page includes ready-made statements. Second, data you already hold: overtime, unused vacation, sick days and turnover by team. Third, what managers hear in one-to-ones.

Read the results by team, not only for the company. A company average can look acceptable while two or three teams are close to breaking. Repeat the measurement every quarter so you can see whether actions worked.

More questions about stress at work.

Is workplace stress getting worse? In the APA data, concern about job loss rose from 36% in 2024 to 44% in 2025, and most workers report ongoing change at their company. thrive research shows the average employee already loses about one working day in five to exhaustion or stress.

Is stress the same as burnout? No. Stress is the response to pressure; burnout is the result of chronic workplace stress that has not been managed, according to the WHO. Read employee burnout.

What the numbers mean for employers.

Three conclusions follow from the data. First, stress is now as much about uncertainty and change as about workload, so how leaders explain and pace change matters. Second, the cost is mostly invisible: lost effectiveness at work, not absence. Third, the biggest drivers sit with the employer: workload, manager support and how change is managed.

That makes measurement the starting point. Without team-level data on workload, energy and recovery, employers see stress only when it turns into sick leave or resignations. With it, they can relieve the teams under most pressure first.

Is workplace stress getting worse?

Several indicators point the same way. Concern about losing one’s job rose from 36% to 44% of US workers between 2024 and 2025 in the APA data. Change at work is close to universal, with 89% of workers reporting some change at their company in the past year. And in Germany, sick days due to mental illness among DAK-insured employees rose from 342 to 366 per 100 insured between 2024 and 2025 (DAK-Psychreport 2026).

Not every number moves in the same direction every year, and surveys measure different things. But the consistent picture is that stress has not eased and that uncertainty has become a larger part of it.

Key terms explained.

**Workplace stress** is the response to demands at work that exceed what people can manage. **Burnout** is the result of chronic workplace stress that has not been managed. **Presenteeism** means being at work but unable to work effectively. **Capacity** is the energy, recovery, focus and resilience a person has available to sustain performance.

About these figures.

APA figures come from a Harris Poll survey of 2,017 employed US adults fielded in March and April 2025. thrive figures are from the thrive at work white paper, 2026; see thrive research findings.