More than 840,000 people die each year from health conditions linked to job strain, including long working hours, job insecurity, and workplace harassment, according to a new International Labour Organization study.
These psychosocial risks can cause depression, burnout, and cancer among workers, while companies face lower staff retention, poor performance, and absenteeism.
Cardiovascular diseases cause most of the attributable deaths, but mental disorders are most likely to cause workers to lose healthy life years, reflecting their chronic and disabling nature.
This results in an estimated loss of 1.37% of global GDP and 1.43% in Europe and Central Asia, the second-highest region worldwide.
In Europe, nearly one in three workers reports job-related stress, depression, or anxiety, with women reporting these problems more frequently than men.
Stigma around mental health remains a major global barrier to prevention and support at work, according to the ILO report.
In the EU, the annual costs of work-related depression exceed €100 billion, with employers bearing more than 80% of the burden.
More than six in 10 workers in Greece, Cyprus, France, and Italy fear negative consequences if they discuss mental health with their manager, according to a 2025 survey by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.
In contrast, in the Nordic countries, around eight in 10 workers feel comfortable doing so.
Other research shows that in Europe, half of men report having some control over their working hours, compared with 43% of women, according to a 2025 Eurofound study. Meanwhile, 17% of workers in the EU report a lack of autonomy or influence over work pace and processes.
Europeans are also split on technology's role: 48% say it sets the work pace, 19% say it reduces opportunities to use their knowledge and skills, and 16% say it limits decision-making.
Across Europe, the share of workers reporting monotonous work tasks increased from 39% in 1995 to 48% in 2024. Sectoral results at the EU level indicate particularly high exposure in agriculture (60%), transport (56%), and commerce and hospitality (53%).