More than one in five Canadians reports “high” or “very high” levels of work-related stress, according to a Statistics Canada survey.
And, according to the survey, stress is most prevalent among workers in the health care and social assistance sectors, with the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating those stress levels.
As of April, health care and social assistance workers were more likely than any other worker to cite a “heavy workload” (32.3 per cent, compared with 23.7 per cent) and higher “emotional load” (21.4 per cent, compared with 11.7 per cent) as causes of work-related stress.”
Stress levels among men and women were similar but differed across industries, with women more stressed than men in educational services (27 per cent compared with 19.6 per cent for men) and retail trade (17.4 per cent compared with 14.1 per cent for men). At the same time, men were more likely than women to report work-related stress in construction (17.2 per cent compared with 12.6 per cent for women).
The stress has caused 7.5 per cent of workers to take time off from their job or business in the 12 months prior to April, the survey showed.
