Mental health is no longer a quiet conversation happening at the edges of HR strategy. It sits at the center of how organizations perform, retain talent and support their people. The mental health in the workplace statistics that follow give HR and benefits leaders the evidence-based grounding they need to act with clarity and confidence.
The state of employee mental health.
Employee mental health has shifted meaningfully year over year, and not for the better. Across the workforce, stress is constant, confidence in job security is lower and the organizational impact is showing up in performance data. The five statistics below establish the baseline: how widespread the challenge is, how fast it’s moving and what HR and benefits leaders are now seeing on the other side of the dashboard.
1. 90% of U.S. workers reported at least minor levels of one mental health challenge.
Mind Share Partners’ 2025 Mental Health at Work Report surveyed 1,153 full-time U.S. employees and found that 90% experienced at least minor levels of one mental health challenge, the highest share since the report began in 2019. The takeaway is direct. Mental health is not a niche concern affecting a small subset of the workforce. It touches nearly everyone.
2. 54% of U.S. workers say job insecurity has a significant impact on their stress levels.
According to the American Psychological Association’s 2025 Work in America Survey, 54% of U.S. workers say job insecurity significantly affects their stress levels, and 65% report their organization has been affected by recent government policy changes. External uncertainty is now a measurable input to employee mental health. HR leaders navigating this climate should treat the broader environment as part of the well-being equation.
3. 31% of U.S. workers say their job makes them feel stressed “always” or “often.”
SHRM’s 2025 Insights: Workplace Mental Health Survey included 1,193 U.S. workers. 31% said their job leaves them stressed “always” or “often.” For nearly a third of the workforce, chronic stress and anxiety are no longer episodic, but rather the default operating state. That reality strengthens the case for sustained, embedded mental health support rather than one-time interventions that fade before habits change.
4. Employees reporting “Excellent” mental health dropped 25% from 2024 to 2026.
The WebMD Health Services Center for Research 2026 Workplace and Employee Survey (n = 3,872) found that the share of employees reporting “Excellent” mental health decreased by 25% from 2024 to 2026. This downward trend is accelerating across dimensions most tied to purpose, connection, security and psychological health. For HR leaders, the data reinforces a clear point: employee mental health is trending in the wrong direction and warrants strategic action now.
5. 7 in 10 benefits leaders say employee mental health has significantly hurt performance over the past year.
Lyra Health’s 2026 State of Workforce Mental Health Report, based on surveys of 500+ benefits leaders and 7,500 employees across six countries, found that 7 in 10 benefits leaders say employee mental health challenges had a significant impact on employee performance over the last year. This is the organizational counterpart to presenteeism. What employees experience individually, benefits leaders now see clearly at the aggregate level.
How mental health affects time away from work.
Absenteeism and presenteeism are the visible and hidden halves of the same cost. Presenteeism erodes productivity long before an employee files a claim. Rising mental health leaves are the late-stage indicator now showing up on the bottom line. Both are measurable, but also preventable when a proactive well-being strategy is in place.
6. 61% of HR leaders report mental health leaves have increased in the past year.
61% of HR leaders report that mental health leaves increased over the past year, according to Spring Health’s 2026 Workplace Mental Health Annual Report. 16% say leaves increased by 25% or more. Rising leave is a board-level signal of workforce strain, and it makes the case for earlier intervention that keeps employees engaged.
7. High-stress workers lose about half their effective output.
meQ’s Summer 2025 State of the Workforce Report found that high-stress workers are 52% less effective in their output, compared with 31% among lower-stress peers. Moreover, Spring Health’s 2026 Workplace Mental Health Annual Report indicated that 40% of employees report being physically present but mentally checked out. This is presenteeism made measurable. Employees remain physically present but functionally diminished, a sustained, often-invisible productivity loss that precedes both absenteeism and leave. Earlier stress intervention can meaningfully close that gap.
8. Employees who believe they must push nonstop are far more likely to be burned out.
The meQ’s 2026 State of the Workforce Report found that among workers who most strongly believe they have to push nonstop, 31% are burned out, compared with 20% of those who hold a healthier view of work. The belief itself is an identifiable, addressable risk factor. Resilience-building and manager modeling that reset unhealthy norms can lower this risk before strain escalates into leave.
How workplace stress affects retention.
Unaddressed workplace stress does not just diminish performance. It often sends employees looking for a different job. The financial and operational costs are significant, and the data below give HR and benefits leaders the concrete numbers they need to build the internal case for investing in workplace stress and burnout programs. For a broader view of the retention picture, our employee retention statistics article offers additional context.
9. 48% of employees have left a job for mental health reasons.
Mind Share Partners’ 2025 Mental Health at Work Report found that nearly half of U.S. employees (48%) have left a job for mental health reasons at some point in their career. 67% of those exits were voluntary. Mental health is no longer a private concern. It is a documented driver of voluntary turnover, and it is one that organizations can influence directly through intentional well-being strategy, manager training and a culture that treats mental health as core to the employee experience.
Burnout statistics employers need to know.
Burnout is not a fringe experience limited to a handful of high-stress roles. It is a near-universal feature of modern work, and the data show it affecting specific employee groups in ways that carry direct organizational consequences from absenteeism to disengagement to turnover. The five statistics that follow reframe burnout as what it actually is: measurable, addressable and preventable when emotional balance is treated as a strategic priority.
10. 79% of employees experience burnout at least occasionally.
LifeSpeak’s member impact data shows that 79% of employees experience burnout at least occasionally.1 That prevalence is the baseline case for embedding always-available emotional balance and resilience resources into daily work, including mental health awareness activities that reach employees before they reach crisis.
11. AI users carry a burnout risk 4.5 times higher than their peers.
The WebMD Health Services Center for Research 2026 Workplace and Employee Survey (n = 3,872) found that while AI adoption boosts productivity, frequent AI use also tracks with elevated burnout risk. Employees who strongly agree that AI makes them more productive face a 4.5 times higher risk of burnout than those who are neutral or disagree. AI is not a neutral efficiency tool. Introduced without training or clear expectations, it becomes a workload and pressure multiplier. Manager visibility and emotional balance support can surface AI-driven strain before it escalates.
12. Burned-out employees are far more likely to job-hunt, even when they otherwise like their employer.
Glassdoor’s Burnout Research links review sentiment directly to job-search behavior. Employees who mention burnout are 59% more likely to apply for a new job within 30 days of leaving a review. The effect holds even among satisfied workers. Five-star reviewers who mention burnout see turnover intentions rise 58%; four-star reviewers, 66%. Burnout mentions also track with a 26% lower average employer rating. Burnout is a retention risk that reaches even otherwise engaged, high-performing employees.
13. Senior managers carry the heaviest burnout burden, more than 3x higher than individual contributors.
Middle managers sit between leadership and frontline teams. They often bear the highest burnout risk of any group. The WebMD Health Services Center for Research 2026 Workplace and Employee Survey found that senior managers have burnout rates more than 3x higher than those of individual contributors, surpassing even senior leaders. They are asked to hold the organization together while quietly bearing its greatest strain.
14. Only 42% of burned-out workers have told their manager.
Eagle Hill Consulting’s Workforce Burnout Survey 2025 found that only 42% of burned-out workers have told their manager about their burnout. Among those who do disclose, 42% report that their manager took no action. This is a disclosure and action gap, one that organizations can close through manager training, structured listening and psychological safety practices that make it safe to speak up and reasonable to expect a response.
What employees expect from mental health benefits.
Employees want more from mental health benefits than most organizations currently deliver. The gap is about awareness, access, stigma and whether employees genuinely believe their organization cares. The statistics below map where employer offerings fall short and where the opportunity lies to close the gap, an opportunity closely tied to the broader importance of mental health in the workplace.
15. Only 53% of employees know how to access mental healthcare through their employer-sponsored insurance.
The 2025 NAMI Workplace Mental Health Poll, fielded by Ipsos with 2,376 full-time workers at companies with 100+ employees, found that only 53% know how to access mental healthcare through their employer-sponsored health insurance. Only 20% receive any workplace training about mental health conditions or symptoms. This is a benefits literacy gap that limits the impact of even well-designed offerings.
16. Roughly 2 in 5 workers worry their career would be negatively impacted if they discussed mental health at work.
In the same NAMI Poll, roughly 2 in 5 U.S. workers worry their career would suffer if they raised mental health concerns at work. This disclosure gap is a measurable cultural barrier. Stigma reduction is a leadership responsibility, not a communications campaign.
17. Only 1 in 4 employees strongly agree that their organization cares about their well-being.
The WebMD Health Services Center for Research 2025 Workplace and Employee Survey found that only 1 in 4 employees strongly agree their organization cares about their well-being, with a 7.5 percentage-point decrease in perceived organizational care from 2024 to 2025. This is the leading indicator of whether benefits will be experienced as meaningful support. The practices that signal care are concrete: psychological safety, manager support, valuing employee input and acting on feedback.
18. 34% of employees say they aren’t offered mental health benefits or aren’t sure if they are.
Spring Health’s 2026 Workplace Mental Health Annual Report found that over one-third of employees (34%) say they are not offered mental health benefits or are unsure whether they are, even though nearly all mid- to large-sized companies offer an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). That gap can quietly erode the return on investment in benefits.
19. Non-managers are far less likely than managers to know about or use their mental health benefits.
The Spring Health Report also found that 75% of managers say they are offered mental health benefits, compared with just 49% of non-managers, a 26-point awareness gap. The usage gap is wider still: 87% of managers used their benefits in the past year, compared with 41% of non-managers. Benefits often don’t reach the broader workforce. Communicating support through direct managers to their teams is one of the most reliable ways to close that gap.
Mental health statistics by industry.
Employee mental health statistics reveal distinct patterns across sectors. The WebMD Health Services Center for Research 2024 Workplace and Employee Survey (n = 3,653) found that Business and Professional Services had the highest burnout score, followed by Education, with burnout increasing across every industry measured between 2022 and 2024, and the steepest increase among Education employees. The subsections below cover three sectors, technology, healthcare and manufacturing, where the data tells a specific story.
Technology sector
Tech workers face a specific combination of pressures that is evident in the burnout data. Always-on culture keeps the workday from ending. AI disruption accelerates workloads while raising the bar on upskilling. Limited internal mobility leaves employees feeling stuck without a path forward. Together, these forces create sustained strain, and they help explain why burnout indicators in tech are running well above cross-industry averages.
20. Nearly 1 in 4 developers are at critical burnout levels.
The LeadDev Engineering Leadership Report 2025 surveyed 617 engineering leaders in March 2025 and found that 22% of developers were facing critical levels of burnout, driven in part by AI-related workload acceleration and constant pressure to upskill. The strain shows up in sentiment too.
Meanwhile, Glassdoor’s Worklife Trends 2025 found 73% of tech workers reported feeling “stuck” in their roles. Digital coaching, emotional balance resources and psychological safety practices are especially relevant for technology teams navigating this environment.
Healthcare sector
Clinical workforces carry a dual weight. Burnout has been a fixture of hospital life for years, and it hasn’t gone away, even as the most acute pandemic-era pressures have eased. Layered on top is a cultural barrier specific to medicine: many clinicians believe seeking mental health support signals weakness or professional risk, which keeps them from reaching for the help they’d readily prescribe to a patient.
21. Physicians face both persistent burnout and stigma that keeps them from seeking help.
The American Medical Association’s 2025 Organizational Biopsy surveyed nearly 19,000 physicians across 106 health systems and found that 41.9% reported experiencing at least one symptom of burnout, a continued decline from 43.2% in 2024 and 48.2% in 2023, but still a sustained pressure on clinical workforces. The Physicians Foundation’s 2025 Survey of America’s Physicians adds that more than 73% of physicians perceive stigma around seeking mental health care. 57% felt inappropriate anger, tearfulness or anxiety in the past year. 46% withdrew from family, friends or coworkers, up from 38% the year before. Confidential, dedicated Health Coaching and stress management resources both support resilience and lower the barrier to seeking care.
Manufacturing sector
Frontline manufacturing workers face mental health risks that show up on the balance sheet in healthcare spending, turnover and lost productivity. The pressures are distinct: physically demanding shifts, limited access to benefits during the workday and a workforce culture where asking for help can feel out of reach. The data below quantifies the cost and indicates where employer support can make the biggest difference.
22. 8.6% of manufacturing workers suffer from anxiety and insomnia, and they cost 2.6x more.
The Manufacturers Alliance Report found that 8.6% of all manufacturing workers suffer from anxiety and insomnia, and that these employees cost companies over 2.6 times as much as their healthy counterparts on average. Turnover in manufacturing runs 33% higher than the national average, which can compound workplace stress for remaining employees, reduce productivity and erode morale. Because manufacturing workforces are predominantly male, mental health support must be designed to reach every employee with communication, framing and access that reduce the barriers men in particular often face when seeking help.
How WebMD Health Services supports workplace well-being.
The data across these 22 workplace mental health statistics points to a single conclusion: mental health is the dimension of well-being under the most acute pressure, and it requires a strategy that matches. At WebMD Health Services, this is the work we have been doing for more than 25 years.
Our approach is built around five dimensions of well-being, with mental health at the core. We combine personalized program design, 250+ dedicated Health Coaches and research-backed expertise from our Center for Research and Clinical Advisory Board. WebMD ONE brings mental health resources, digital coaching, and engagement tools into a cohesive experience, so employees find the right support at the right moment and HR leaders see the outcomes.
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