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A mental health pandemic is engulfing the world’s workplaces, with financial services among the hardest-hit sectors, businesses and economists have warned.
A survey by Deloitte this year found that the proportion of UK staff suffering from all three main signs of burnout — exhaustion, declining performance and mental distancing from the job — was 17 per cent in finance and insurance, compared with an average of 12 per cent across all sectors.
It added that the average annual cost of poor mental health per employee in finance and insurance was £5,379, more than double that in any of the 14 other sectors covered.
The report adds to a growing volume of research on the impact of a global mental health crisis on companies and the workplace.
According to the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization, about 12bn working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety, costing the global economy $1tn annually.
“The scale of the problem is hugely worrying, particularly among young people,” said Kate Pickett, professor of epidemiology at York university in the UK.
“People ask whether we’re just measuring more mental illness because people are more willing to report it,” she added. “But the increase has been so huge that there is something real going on.”
