Work related stress is rising fast, and the North cannot afford to ignore it

New evidence from the TUC shows work-related stress has become the biggest health and safety issue facing working people, driven by excessive workloads and employers failing to tackle the risks properly.

Health and Safety Executive figures for 24/25 estimate 964,000 workers suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety, up from 776,000 in 23/24. The result is 22.1 million working days lost in a single year, a serious hit to people’s health and family life as well as the economy.

The TUC’s findings come directly from the shop floor. In its biennial survey of more than 2,700 union health and safety reps, 79 per cent said stress is a major hazard, the highest figure ever recorded, and 60 per cent flagged workload as a major hazard. Public services stand out, including health, education, local government, central government, and the voluntary sector.

For the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber, that matters because many of our jobs are in those high-pressure roles, from NHS and social care staff to teachers, council workers and charity teams. When services are stretched, vacancies grow and demand rises; stress becomes normalised. The consequences are clear: higher sickness absence, poorer retention and worse outcomes for the public.

Official HSE data underlines the regional scale. In the latest three-year average covering 2022/23 to 2024/25, an estimated 29,000 workers in the North East and 75,000 in Yorkshire and the Humber reported work related stress, depression or anxiety caused or made worse by work. That equates to rates of around 2,360 per 100,000 workers in the North East and 2,660 per 100,000 in Yorkshire and the Humber, compared with 2,580 per 100,000 across Great Britain.

Most worrying is how many workplaces are still failing to do the basics. Two thirds of safety reps said they were not aware of any stress risk assessment at work, and nearly half said they were not consulted on the risk assessment process at all, despite clear legal duties on employers. Without proper assessment, stress is too often treated as an individual weakness rather than a workplace risk, and support arrives only after people are already burnt out or signed off.

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak put it plainly, warning that ‘stress is now entrenched as the biggest health and safety issue’ and that too many employers are “piling impossible workloads onto their staff”.

So, what needs to change? Employers must treat stress like any other workplace hazard: identify the risks, assess them properly, consult workers and union safety reps, and act. Government must ensure the HSE has the resources to inspect workplaces and enforce the law. And across the North, we need realistic workloads and safe staffing levels, especially in the public services that keep our communities running. Stress is not a personal failing. It is often the predictable result of how work is organised, and it can be prevented.