Job stress costs Aussie economy $950m a year

Photo / APN

Preventable job stress is draining A$730 million ($949 million) a year from the Australian economy, a report has found.

An estimated 1.5 million workers have been diagnosed with depression from excessive job stress, costing businesses more than A$8000 per person every year, says the report.

Such job strain in the study is defined as coming from employees perceiving that they have little control over their work due to long-term, high-stress job demands.

Released yesterday, the VicHealth study found job-related depression is common but preventable. It hurts businesses from lost productive time and employee replacement costs.

An annual A$730 million figure on job strain includes the cost of government-subsidised mental health services and medications for depression.

Study co-author Tony LaMontagne, an associate professor at the University of Melbourne, says the study shows there are economic incentives for workplaces to reduce job strain, on top of legal and ethical reasons.

"Employers would be the major beneficiaries ... over the long term, because the greatest costs fall on employers due to lost productivity and employee replacement."

The report is funded by VicHealth and conducted by the University of Melbourne's School of Population Health and Tasmania's Menzies Research Institute.

- AAP