October 27, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Industries with the most cases of occupational stress

In 1997, four industries accounted for the bulk of occupational stress cases: services, manufacturing, retail trade, and finance, insurance, and real estate.

Percent distribution of all nonfatal injuries and illnesses and of cases of neurotic reaction to stress involving days away from work, by industry, 1997
[Chart data—TXT]

Thirty-five percent of cases of occupational stress involving days away from work were in the services industry. In comparison, 23 percent of all nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses occurred in services in 1997.

Manufacturing accounted for 21 percent of occupational stress cases and retail trade for 14 percent. These proportions were lower for these industries than the comparable proportions for all injuries and illnesses.

Like the services industry, finance, insurance, and real estate had a higher proportion of occupational stress cases than of all nonfatal injury and illness cases. Twelve percent of cases of occupational stress were in finance, insurance, and real estate, while only 2 percent of all injuries and illnesses were.

These data are a product of the BLS Safety and Health Statistics Program. Cases of occupational stress involving days away from work are classified by BLS as cases of "neurotic reaction to stress." Additional information is available from "Issues in Labor Statistics: Occupational Stress" (PDF 20K). Agriculture, mining, and construction are not shown in the chart, because the statistics on neurotic reaction to stress for these industries did not meet publication criteria.

Of interest

Spotlight on Statistics: The Recession of 2007–2009

The most recent recession in the United States began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, though many of the statistics that describe the U.S. economy have yet to return to their pre-recession values. In this Spotlight, we present BLS data that compare the recent recession to previous recessions. Read more »