At least ten million working days were lost as a result of work-related stress in 2011 alone, impacting both large and small businesses.
Such is one of the main findings of the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) annual statistics, which were published yesterday (November 1st).
In fact, a company that employs someone suffering from work-related stress can expect to lose up to 24 days a year in each case.
This all adds up to a loss in productivity, healthy workers being expected to conduct more work and a financial burden.
It was also found that women are more likely than men to take time off because of stress, while those aged between 35 and 54 years tend to be more affected by this issue than other age groups.
However, it is not all bad news as the number of days taken off due to stress has declined in the past decade.
According to the HSE, 39.8 million working days were lost due to stress in 2002 compared to 27 million this year.
Judith Hackett, chair of the HSE, said: "Any reduction in the number of people being injured or made unwell by their jobs should be welcomed.
"Given the challenging economic conditions which many sectors have faced in recent years it is particularly encouraging to see continued reductions in levels of injury and ill health."
She added that Britain has earned the reputation as one of the safest places to work in Europe although there is still room for improvement.
There has also been little change in terms of the industries that see the most workplace injuries.
Once again, the construction industry is one of the higher risk sectors in which to work with 171.8 major injuries per 100,000 employees this year, but this number is declining.
The agriculture and waste and recycling sectors are also deemed as being high risk industries by the HSE.
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