We all know that being trapped in a job we can’t stand can take its toll on our physical and mental wellbeing, linked to everything from sleeplessness to high blood pressure and longer term health problems. Now, an American study has pinpointed the jobs that are most likely to leave us feeling anxious, stressed out and depressed.
Most surprising, perhaps, is the absence of many jobs which we would assume to involve ‘high stakes,’ and therefore ‘high stress,’ like investment banking and medicine. According to the study, many of the highest charting professions are those that involve interacting with the public, or the ‘emotional labour’ of face-to-face or voice-to-voice contact – like social work, retail and ‘personal services.’
The industries with the highest depression rates were, in general, also found to have a greater imbalance between effort put in and reward gained, emotional labour and lack of physical activity. So, feeling undervalued, having to put on a front when interacting with clients or customers and being deskbound throughout the day could all be warning signs.
To reach these conclusions, researchers surveyed 214,413 people working in 53 different industries over a three year period.
These are the 17 jobs most likely to be linked to depression:
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Transportation driver
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Estate agent
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Social worker
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Manufacturer
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Personal services
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Legal services
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Housekeeper
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Membership organisations
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Security and commodities brokers
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Printing and publishing
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Agricultural services
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Retail
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Electric, gas, and sanitary
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Special trade contractors
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Petroleum and coal
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General merchandise retail
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Auto repair
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