Most Depressed; Least Depressed Workers

Study Reveals Industries With The Highest And Lowest Rates Of Depression…

A study recently released by The Substance Abuse And Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) revealed that 10.8 percent of personal care and service workers and 10.3 percent of food preparation and serving workers experienced one or more major depressive episodes in the past year. Also among the leading industries for worker depression were community and social service workers and health care practitioners.

A depressive episode is defined as “a period of two weeks or longer during which there is depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure and at least four other symptoms that reflect a change in functioning, such as problems with sleep, eating, energy, concentration and self-image.”

The least depressing careers appear to lie in architecture, engineering, the sciences and in the installation, maintenance and repair fields.

The complete list by category and percentage is as follows:

• Personal care ….. 10.8 percent
• Food preparation and serving ……10.3 percent
• Community and social services…….9.6 percent
• Health practioners and technical….9.6 percent
• Arts, design, sports and media……9.0 percent
• Education, training and library…..8.7 percent
• Financial and sales .6.7 percent
• Legal and transportation ………..6.4 percent
• Management ……….5.8 percent
• Farming, fishery and forest ……..5.6 percent
• Construction and mining …………4.8 percent
• Installation, maintenance, repair…4.4 percent
• Life, physical and social science…4.4 percent
• Engineering, architecture, surveyor.4.3 percent

While the report did not discuss potential reasons why certain workers in certain industries were much more susceptible to depressive episodes, my gut instinct tells me that it has something to do with the amount of control these people have over their jobs. Indeed, the health research is just now illuminating the fact that workers who are required to address unending and unyielding demands–and yet have very little control over how they accomplish the task itself–experience more illness and significantly more depression. And when you look at occupations like health care workers and community social services professionals, there is little question that the demands are significant and the amount of control is serverely lacking.

Although largely unaddressed, depression and other mental health concerns cost American business more $35 billion a year in lost productivity.