This snapshot of workforce health in Australia uses existing data from seven nationally representative surveys to construct an evidence-base on modern worker wellbeing. It finds workplaces in which pain, psychological distress, mental health disorders and lost working time are common. 

The snapshot reports across ten domains of worker health and wellbeing, including five health and wellbeing outcomes: worker physical health, worker mental health, health at work, worker disability status, and deaths at work. The remaining five domains are determinants of health: social protection, health service use, financial circumstances, job characteristics, and lifestyle factors. It finds improvements in some areas, including job insecurity, physical activity and smoking, but worsening conditions around mental health and financial conditions. 

The report finds that major gaps and limitations in Australia's workforce health data restrict the ability to identify opportunities for improvement. The authors call on policymakers to invest in a robust and comprehensive national workforce health monitoring system in order to fully understand and address the health and wellbeing needs of Australian workers and support a healthier and more productive workforce.

Key findings

• 39% of workers reported pain that interferes with their ability to do their job. 
• 72% of workers recorded at least one dimension of their job as being of low psychosocial quality.
• 40% reported psychological distress (an increase from 34% in 2017-2018).
• 18% reported high or very high levels of distress, up from 8% in 2014-2015.
• 22% reported a mental health condition with symptoms.
• 43% of workers reported that their job was very demanding.
• 12% had a disability or long term condition affecting their work.
• Poor mental health led to 42 million days of lost work per annum in 2020 to 2022.
• Around 4 workers die at work every week.