Employee Burnout Statistics

What Causes Burnout?

• Excessive workloads and long hours that lead to exhaustion: around 29–35% of employees point to heavy workload as the top driver of workplace stress (14, 17)
• Lack of control over work processes, which research identifies as a key driver of feelings of helplessness (4)
• Insufficient recognition or reward: roughly 1 in 5 employees don't feel recognised for their contributions, and around 1 in 4 don't feel fairly paid (15)
• Job insecurity: over a third of employees are concerned about redundancy, and nearly half feel they must work harder or longer just to keep their job (15)
• Stalled career development: around 6 in 10 employees say they'd leave their role if growth stalled, and roughly 1 in 5 received no training at all in the past 12 months (15)
• A weak sense of belonging: employees who feel they belong report substantially lower stress and burnout than those who don't (17)

Impact on Businesses

Burnout has clear flow-on effects for organisations as well as individuals. On the business side, it can drive higher absenteeism, presenteeism, lower productivity, increased turnover, and a decline in overall workplace morale. On the individual side, it can contribute to serious mental and physical health issues, including depression, anxiety, and cardiovascular problems.

Prevalence in Australia

• 1 in 2 workers aged 18–54 feel exhausted at work (1)
• 49% of Australian and New Zealand employees reported feelings of burnout or exhaustion, per a 2023 survey of over 2,000 employees working 30+ hours a week (14)
• 61% of Australian workers report experiencing burnout, compared to a 48% global average (5)
• 40% of Australian employees (an estimated 4.3 million workers) are currently experiencing burnout, according to a Q3 2025 employee sentiment index (15)

Note: estimates vary depending on survey methodology, timeframe, and how "burnout" is defined: figures above range from roughly 40–61% across different Australian studies, so treat each as a snapshot rather than a single agreed figure.

Stress in Professional Lives

• 80% of workers encounter stress in their professional lives, and around 50% seek help to manage it (2)
• 44% of employees globally reported experiencing a lot of stress "yesterday," per Gallup's State of the Global Workplace survey (18)
• 60% of employees report negative impacts from work-related stress: reduced interest, motivation and energy (26%), lower work effort (19%), cognitive weariness (36%), emotional exhaustion (32%), and increased physical fatigue (38%, up from 44% since 2019) (3)

The Burnout–Recovery Paradox

• Despite half of employees in one survey reporting burnout, only 63% took a planned holiday, and just 35% took time off specifically for their mental health in the past year (8% took no time off at all) (14)
• Of those who did take a break over the holiday period, 43% felt a boost to wellbeing, 29% felt no difference, and 27.5% felt worse (14)
• In one Australian dataset, burnout held steady at 40% across two consecutive quarters even as sick leave (35%→39%), annual leave (32%→36%), and working-while-unwell (37%→40%) all increased: suggesting burnout is driven by ongoing conditions that time off alone doesn't resolve (15)

Engagement and Turnover

• Burned-out employees are 63% more likely to take a sick day and 2.6x as likely to be actively seeking a different job (4, 18)
• 40% of employee resignations are attributed to burnout (5)
• 40% of employees cite burnout as a primary reason for quitting, and 28% of those resigned without a new job lined up (6)

Economic Cost

• Burnout and stress-related absenteeism cost the Australian economy an estimated $14 billion annually (5): a separate estimate puts this closer to $14.2 billion, factoring in absenteeism, presenteeism, and turnover (15), while another analysis estimates $39 billion a year in lost productivity, absenteeism and turnover (16). The spread reflects differing methodologies and scope rather than a single settled number.
• Overseas research estimates burnout costs organisations roughly US$4,000–$21,000 per employee annually, rising to as much as US$5 million a year for a 1,000-person company (16)

The Support Gap

• 36% of employees say their organisation isn't doing anything to help with burnout (8)
• 70% of professionals believe their employer isn't doing enough to prevent or mitigate burnout (10)
• Only around 5% of employees accessed an Employee Assistance Program in one recent quarter, despite 40% reporting burnout: a wide gap suggesting real barriers to seeking help (15)
• 21% of workers were able to have open, productive conversations with HR about burnout solutions; 56% said HR did not encourage these conversations at all (8)

What employees say would help most:

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Source (9)

Managers and Burnout

• Managers report frequent or constant burnout at a similar (or slightly higher) rate to individual contributors: 26% vs 24% (11)
• In one large study, manager engagement had fallen to just 27% globally, notable because managers are estimated to account for around 70% of the variance in team engagement: meaning a disengaged or burnt-out manager tends to drag their whole team down with them (17)
• Only around 44% of managers globally report having received any formal management training (17)

Remote and On-Site Workers

• 61% of remote workers and 53% of on-site workers find it harder to "unplug" after hours (12)
• 86% of full-time remote workers experience burnout (13)
• 67% of remote workers feel pressured to be available at all times (13)
• 41% of high-frequency remote workers report feeling high stress "always" or "most of the time" (13)
• In overseas data, fully remote workers reported burnout at a higher rate than hybrid or on-site workers (61% vs 57% vs 55%), despite greater flexibility: pointing to always-on culture and isolation as key risk factors (17)

Gender Differences

• 72% of Australian women reported experiencing burnout in the past 12 months, per a 2025 survey of around 1,400 women about their careers and ambitions (16)
• Among women reporting burnout, contributing factors included a difficult manager (33%), parenting responsibilities (21%), being paid less (25%), and workplace bullying (around 1 in 5) (16)
• Overseas data shows a similar gender gap, with women reporting burnout at notably higher rates than men, particularly in leadership roles (17)

What Actually Reduces Burnout

• Structured flexibility (team-coordinated schedules) is associated with lower burnout than unlimited, individually-chosen flexibility, which can remove helpful structure (17)
• A sense of belonging at work is linked to substantially lower stress and burnout rates (17)
• Manager training is consistently identified as one of the most effective single interventions: coaching-trained managers are linked to meaningful gains in team performance (17)
• Right-to-disconnect legislation in Australia appears to have supported productivity gains in affected businesses, plausibly by reducing after-hours "attention fragmentation" (19)
• Deliberate boundaries, such as meeting-free focus periods and email curfews, need to be actively designed into a team's culture rather than emerging on their own (19)

Helping Employees Avoid Burnout

Preventing burnout is a challenging but critical part of protecting worker wellbeing. If you think your team may be at risk, there are a number of proven strategies worth exploring: from baselining wellbeing and fixing workload design, to training managers and building recovery into the workday. Talk to Foremind today about how we can help improve your team's wellbeing.

References

1. State of the Future of Work 2023
2. The American Institute of Stress: Workplace Stress
3. Mental Health First Aid Australia: Navigating Burnout
4. Gallup: Employee Burnout: Main Causes
5. Mental Health First Aid Australia: Navigating Burnout
6. WebMD Health Services: Whitepapers
7. Eagle Hill Consulting: COVID-19 and Employee Burnout Webinar
8. FlexJobs & Mental Health America: Mental Health in the Workplace
9. FlexJobs & Mental Health America: Mental Health in the Workplace
10. Deloitte: Burnout Survey
11. Gallup: Employee Burnout Part 2: Managers
12. Indeed: Preventing Employee Burnout Report
13. Zippia: Remote Work Burnout Statistics
14. Sonder: "New report: 49% of employees are experiencing burnout" (June 2026), citing a September 2023 McGregor Tan survey of AU/NZ employees
15. ELMO Software: "Workplace Burnout" glossary entry (February 2026), citing ELMO's Q3 2025 Employee Sentiment Index
16. UNSW BusinessThink: "Beyond breaking point: Why the burnout crisis is getting worse" (October 2025), citing the 2025 Women's Agenda Ambitions Report and a 2025 American Journal of Preventive Medicine study
17. WorkTime: "40 employee burnout statistics & trends in the workplace (2026)" (March 2026), citing Eagle Hill Consulting (November 2025), the Aflac WorkForces Report (2025), Mercer Global Talent Trends (2024), SHRM, and Gallup (2025). Note: this source draws primarily on US data.
18. Better Being: "Employee Burnout Statistics Every Organisation Should Know" (April 2026), citing Gallup's State of the Global Workplace
19. UNSW BusinessThink: "Beyond breaking point: Why the burnout crisis is getting worse" (October 2025)

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