Stress is a prevalent and costly problem In roday's workplace. ScientIfic surveys, such as the General Social Survey, have consistently shown high levels of job stress among one-third or more of the workforce during the last two decades, and a recent survey by the American Psychological Association (2009) found that work was the primary source of stress among men. Much is known about the conditions of work itself and the risks they present for stress. The same is not true for effects of the economic environment. Numerous studies in the last four decades have examined relationships between indices of economic contraction (especially unemployment) and economic expansion, and illness, injury, and stressrelated disorders. However, uncertainty remains about the risks these economic conditions pose to well-being. Findings in several studies are attributed, in part, to effects of macroeconomic factors on working conditions-some suggesting, for example, that economic downturns are associated with heightened demands at work. Others argue the same for periods of economic expansion. It is of interest, however, that with few exceptions, many of these studies did not directly investigate effects of macroeconomic factors on work-related mechanisms that may underlie observed health and safety outcomes. Rather, such effects were inferred. A notable exception is the work of Fenwick and Tausig (1994), which showed that the effects of recession on job stress could be explained entirely by degraded working conditions. In the present study, we sought to add clarity to the relationship between macroeconomic conditions and risk of job stress by directly investigating fluctuation in the economy and near-term effects on job characteristics that are known risk factors for job stress, specifically, workload demands and the degree of job control exercised by workers.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.