How Rising Rates of Burnout Risk Are Impacting Different Industries in 2022

Between a global pandemic and challenging economic times, employees around the world have been under an increasing amount of stress over the past few years. According to the 2021 Work and Wellbeing Survey from the American Psychological Association, 3 in 5 employees reported negative impacts of work-related stress, including lack of interest, motivation, or energy (26%), emotional exhaustion (32%), and high levels of physical fatigue (44%).

The findings from our latest report, “Addressing Burnout Risk in 2022,” tell a similar story. Of the 10 industries in our analysis, seven either maintained or saw increased levels of higher burnout risk year on year.

Our analysis of burnout risk is based on de-identified employee survey data from 1.5 million employees across more than 600 companies around the world.

Higher Levels of Burnout Risk Among Front-Line Workers

A prominent theme that emerged from our analysis of burnout risk is rapidly declining energy levels of employees within a number of sectors, including healthcare, transportation, consumer goods, and manufacturing—many of which have a higher proportion of front-line employees.

The transportation sector saw a significant increase in burnout risk, with 60% of transportation companies falling into the higher risk category in 2022, compared to 44% in 2021. This was the steepest increase of all industries in the current analysis. 

This highlights the need for organizations to not only provide support for the mental and physical health of employees but also introduce a greater degree of flexibility and autonomy, where feasible, so that employees can more effectively manage their workload and establish a healthier work-life balance.

Lower Levels of Burnout Risk Among U.S. Organizations

Some countries performed better than others between 2021 and 2022, with organizations headquartered in Australia and Germany seeing a drop in the proportion of organizations with a higher level of burnout risk by 19% and 15% respectively, year over year. 

U.S.-headquartered companies have one of the lowest proportions of organizations in the higher risk category, holding steady at 17% year on year. This compares to those in the UK, which have the highest proportion of companies with elevated levels of burnout risk, at 41%.

Apart from the fact American employees tend to respond more optimistically than others (based on previous survey results), U.S. organizations are also often some of the largest, meaning larger budgets to support health and wellbeing initiatives that address burnout risk. Meanwhile, many UK organizations have faced people and materials shortages over the past year, culminating in strikes and pay disputes across a number of different industries.

Regions that ranked well in all three components of burnout risk include the U.S., Denmark, and Canada. Norway also ranks well for energy levels and connectedness but underperformed on fulfillment compared to the top three.

What Can Organizations Do to Address Burnout Risk?

The immediate stressors of the global pandemic may have eased in many parts of the world, but organizations still need to address the knock-on effects to employee health and wellbeing, which may be impacted further by challenging economic times in the future.

Studies have shown that initiatives aimed at individuals are less effective than those that tackle issues at the organizational level, including toxic behavior, unreasonable workloads, and a lack of autonomy—some of the same elements included in our burnout risk methodology.

Our latest report, “Addressing Burnout Risk in 2022,” not only reveals the latest insights on burnout risk in different industries and regions, it also provides a clear methodology to understand the various aspects of burnout risk, and what organizations can do to address them.

To learn more about how burnout risk evolved between 2021 and 2022, download the full report.