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Report Rates Depression Risk by Occupation

Is your job bringing you down? The problem could be the field you work in, shows a new report from the the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) on depression in working adults by occupational field.

Surveys completed by full- and part-time employees and unemployed adults age 18 to 64 who participated in SAMHSA's 2004 to 2006 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health revealed that seven percent of full-time workers, 9.3 percent of part-time workers and 12.7 percent of unemployed had experienced a major depressive episode (MDE), a period of two weeks or more in which an individual experiences several depressive symptoms, in the previous year.

Analyzed by occupational category, the highest rates of MDEs were found in personal care and service (10.8 percent) and food preparation (10.3 percent). The lowest rated occupations were engineering, architecture and surveying (4.3 percent); life, physical and social science (4.4 percent); and installation, maintenance and repair (4.4 percent).

By gender, women were more than twice as likely to have experienced a major depressive episode than men, with respective rates of 10.1 and 4.7 percent. The most depressed women worked in food preparation and service related sectors (14.8 percent) while the most depressed men were found in the fields of arts, design, entertainment, sports and media (6.7 percent). Interestingly, women in the least depressed professions, engineering, architecture, had above average rates of MDEs at 11.1 percent, compared to just 3.3 percent for their male counterparts.

Overall, rates of depression among workers declined with age. Almost nine percent of workers age 18 to 25 had experienced a major depressive episode, compared to just 5.1 percent of those age 50 to 64.

REPORT: Depression among Adults Employed Full-Time, by Occupational Category