Burnout Statistics 2026: How Widespread Is Burnout?

About two-thirds of full-time employees experience burnout on the job at least sometimes, according to Gallup’s landmark research: 23% report feeling burned out very often or always, and 44% sometimes. The World Health Organization classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon caused by chronic, unmanaged workplace stress, not a medical diagnosis.

If you’ve searched “burnout statistics,” you’ve probably landed on the same handful of numbers, recycled from post to post with the source stripped off. This page traces each figure back to Gallup, the World Health Organization (WHO), NIOSH, or the American Psychological Association (APA), so you can see who was surveyed, when, and what question they were actually asked.

Burnout statistics at a glance

• 23% of employees report feeling burned out at work “very often” or “always,” and another 44% report feeling burned out “sometimes” (Gallup, 2018)
• Employees who feel burned out often are 2.6 times as likely to be actively job-hunting and 63% more likely to take a sick day (Gallup, 2018)
• The WHO classifies burn-out as an occupational phenomenon in the ICD-11, and is explicit that it’s not a medical condition (WHO, 2019)
• 40% of employees worldwide report feeling a lot of daily stress at work, a share that’s held above pre-pandemic levels for years (Gallup, 2026)
• Nearly 30% of US workers say they always or often find their job stressful (NIOSH, 2024)
• 54% of US workers say job insecurity significantly affects their stress levels, one pressure that can feed into burnout over time (APA, 2025)

What exactly is burnout, according to the WHO?

Burnout has an official definition, and it’s worth knowing before you look at any number tied to it. The WHO’s ICD-11 lists “burn-out” as an occupational phenomenon, not an illness. Its own text is direct about this: burnout “should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life,” and it “is not classified as a medical condition” (WHO, 2019).

The WHO defines it as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed,” marked by three things: energy depletion or exhaustion, growing mental distance or cynicism about your job, and reduced professional efficacy.

Psychologist Christina Maslach built the standard tool researchers use to measure this, the Maslach Burnout Inventory. That 2016 review in World Psychiatry found these three dimensions, exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced efficacy, track independently of one another. You might feel wiped out but still capable, or checked-out but not yet exhausted; either pattern is worth taking seriously on its own.

This official definition matters for reading statistics correctly. A survey that asks a single yes/no question is measuring something looser than the three-dimension syndrome the WHO and Maslach describe. Neither approach is wrong, but they’re not interchangeable, a theme we come back to below.

How many employees actually experience burnout?

The most-cited figure in this space comes from Gallup’s 2018 research on full-time US employees. It found 23% of employees report feeling burned out at work “very often” or “always,” and another 44% report feeling burned out “sometimes” (Gallup). Add those together, and roughly two in three full-time employees experience burnout on the job at least sometimes.

That’s a striking number, and one reason it’s still the figure most often quoted in burnout coverage years after Gallup first published it. It’s worth remembering it’s a single-country, self-reported snapshot from 2018, not a running global tracker the way some of Gallup’s other workplace research is.

What causes burnout the most?

Gallup’s same research ranked the factors most strongly linked to burnout. In order, the top five were: unfair treatment at work, unmanageable workload, lack of role clarity, lack of communication and support from a manager, and unreasonable time pressure (Gallup, 2018).

Notice what’s missing from that list: raw hours worked. Every factor Gallup identified is about how work is structured and managed, not simply how much of it there is. That lines up with the WHO’s framing of burnout as stress that hasn’t been “successfully managed,” not stress that’s merely present.

What happens to employees who are burned out?

Burnout doesn’t stay contained to how someone feels at their desk. Gallup found employees who strongly agree they’re often burned out are 2.6 times as likely to be actively searching for a different job, and 63% more likely to take a sick day, compared with employees who don’t report burnout (Gallup, 2018).

Higher turnover risk and more sick days are exactly the kind of costs that make burnout an employer problem as well as a personal one. It’s part of why burnout gets tracked by workplace researchers like Gallup and NIOSH, alongside APA’s broader stress research.

Is the stress behind burnout getting worse?

Burnout builds from chronic, unmanaged stress, so it’s worth tracking that upstream number too, even though “stress” and “burnout” aren’t measured the same way. On that front, the picture hasn’t been improving.

Globally, 40% of employees said they felt a lot of stress the day before being surveyed for Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report, a share that’s held above pre-pandemic levels for several years running (Gallup, 2026). In the US, NIOSH’s 2024 analysis of federal workforce survey data found nearly 30% of workers always or often experience their job as stressful (NIOSH, 2024).

Job security is part of that pressure too. In APA’s 2025 survey, 54% of US workers said job insecurity has a significant impact on their stress levels (APA, 2025). None of these are “burnout” statistics in the WHO’s strict sense, but they describe the same chronic, unmanaged pressure that burnout grows out of. For the fuller stress picture, see Stress Statistics 2026.

Why don’t burnout statistics always agree?

Because “burnout” gets measured differently depending on who’s asking. Gallup’s widely cited figures come from a self-report survey asking how often someone feels burned out. The WHO’s ICD-11 describes a three-dimension syndrome meant to be assessed with a validated tool like the Maslach Burnout Inventory, not a single question. NIOSH and APA, in turn, are usually measuring workplace stress broadly, the fuel for burnout, rather than burnout itself.

None of these are wrong. But a “23%” from a one-question survey and an assessment using all three Maslach dimensions aren’t the same measurement, even when both get called “burnout” in a headline. Before repeating any burnout statistic, it’s worth checking whether it’s measuring a quick self-report or the fuller three-part syndrome the WHO defines.

What can you do about burnout today?

None of the numbers above are about EMDR or bilateral stimulation specifically; they simply describe how common burnout and chronic workplace stress are. But they explain why bilateral stimulation, the alternating left-right input at the center of EMDR, has become a popular tool for exactly this kind of chronic stress.

A simple version costs nothing: cross your arms over your chest so each hand rests on your opposite shoulder (the butterfly hug), then tap left, right, left, right at a slow, steady pace for 20 to 30 seconds while you notice how wound up your body feels. Pause, breathe, and repeat for four to six sets. Our burnout reset guide walks through this in more depth, and Does EMDR Help with Burnout? looks honestly at what the direct evidence for EMDR and burnout does and doesn’t show yet.

EmEase, a self-guided EMDR app, is a way to practice that same technique on your own time, with a guided moving target or alternating tones instead of counting seconds yourself. A desk-friendly reset for a stressful workday or a five-minute daily nervous-system routine are both good starting points, and you can try EmEase itself at app.emease.com with a 7-day free trial. Worth being clear-eyed here too: work stress specifically often needs changes to the job itself, not just a calmer nervous system.

The bottom line

However you slice it, burnout is common, not rare: Gallup’s research puts roughly two in three full-time employees somewhere on the burnout spectrum, from occasional to constant. The WHO is careful to frame it as an occupational phenomenon tied to unmanaged workplace stress, not a personal failing or a medical diagnosis. What changes from source to source isn’t whether burnout is widespread, it’s exactly what question was asked and which of the three WHO dimensions it’s actually measuring.

Frequently asked questions

How common is burnout among employees?

Very common. Gallup’s landmark study found 23% of employees feel burned out at work “very often” or “always,” and another 44% feel burned out “sometimes.” Combined, that’s roughly two in three full-time employees experiencing burnout on the job at least occasionally, based on that same US survey.

What exactly is burnout, officially?

The World Health Organization’s ICD-11 defines burn-out as a syndrome from chronic workplace stress that hasn’t been successfully managed, with three markers: exhaustion, growing cynicism about your job, and reduced professional efficacy. The WHO is explicit that it’s an occupational phenomenon, not a medical condition.

What causes burnout the most?

Gallup’s research ranked five factors as most strongly linked to burnout: unfair treatment at work, unmanageable workload, lack of role clarity, lack of manager support and communication, and unreasonable time pressure. Notably, raw hours worked wasn’t the top driver; how work is managed mattered more.

What happens to employees who are burned out?

Gallup found burned-out employees are 2.6 times as likely to be actively job-hunting and 63% more likely to take a sick day than employees who aren’t burned out. That combination of turnover risk and absenteeism is part of why burnout gets studied as a workplace problem, not just a personal one.

Is the stress behind burnout getting worse?

It’s staying high rather than easing. Gallup found 40% of employees worldwide felt a lot of daily stress at work in its 2026 report, and NIOSH data show close to 30% of US workers always or often find their job stressful. Job insecurity is adding to that pressure for over half of US workers.

Does EMDR or bilateral stimulation treat burnout?

Not in a proven sense yet. EMDR’s bilateral stimulation technique is well documented to calm an activated nervous system, and it’s a reasonable everyday wellness practice for the wired-but-tired feeling burnout brings. But it’s not a substitute for addressing what’s actually driving chronic burnout, like workload or job structure.