Friday Pulse
Depressed at work?
Get a new career:
n Personal care ..... 10.8 percent
n Food preparation and serving ...... 10.3 percent
n Community and social services....... 9.6 percent
n Health practioners and technical.... 9.6 percent
n Arts, design, sports and media...... 9.0 percent
n Education, training and library..... 8.7 percent
n Financial and sales ..... 6.7 percent
n Legal and transportation ........... 6.4 percent
n Management .......... 5.8 percent
n Farming, fishery and forest ........ 5.6 percent
n Construction and mining ............ 4.8 percent
n Installation, maintenance, repair... 4.4 percent
n Life, physical and social science... 4.4 percent
n Engineering, architecture, surveyor. 4.3 percent. Agencies
Child care workers, home health care aides
and other people who provide personal services have the highest rates of
depression among U.S. workers, according to a new survey to be
published.
It found that 10.8 percent of personal care and service workers and
10.3 percent of food preparation and serving workers — both usually
low-paying jobs — experienced one or more major depressive episodes in
the past year.
The least depressing careers appear to lie in architecture,
engineering, the sciences and in the installation, maintenance and
repair fields, the survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration found.
“Combined data from 2004 to 2006 indicate that an annual average of 7
percent of full-time workers aged 18 to 64 experienced a major
depressive episode in the past year,” the report reads.
A major depressive episode is defined as “a period of two weeks or
longer during which there is depressed mood or loss of interest or
pleasure and at least four other symptoms that reflect a change in
functioning, such as problems with sleep, eating, energy, concentration
and self-image.”
Depression is a physiological disease of the brain, but a person’s
individual circumstances can affect its frequency and severity. Both
drugs and counseling can help.
SAMHSA used data from the National Survey of Drug Use, which involved
interviews of more than 60,000 people. The SAMSHA depression survey
focused on workers aged 18 to 64.
“While rates of depression were higher among the unemployed and
part-time workers, 52.4 percent of the adults who reported past-year
depression were employed full-time. Full-time workers make up more than
half of the adult population,” the report reads.
“Depression exacts a high price from workers and from their
employers, costing the U.S. workplace an estimated $36.6 billion per
year in lost productivity,” SAMHSA Administrator Terry Cline said in a
statement.
“Depression screening, outreach and enhanced treatment can improve
productivity, lower employer costs, and improve the quality of life for
individuals and their families.”
The report found the following rates of depression by job category: |