Hospitality & Real Estate Professionals More Prone to Mental Health Issues

Although depression and other mental health issues are more prevalent in the hospitality and real estate industries, they were, at least before the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming more widespread.

Significant gender disparities of common mental health issues against females were discovered by researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and University College London in more than half of the twenty industries examined. The industry with the smallest gap was transportation and storage, and the industry with the largest gap was arts, entertainment, and recreation.

In the U.K., one in seven employees suffers from mental health issues, and women are nearly twice as likely as men to encounter these issues. Mental health issues are responsible for more than half of all sick days. According to estimates, the cost of lost productivity due to mental health issues amounts to 4.1% of the UK’s GDP. Businesses in the UK may save up to £8 billion annually by providing better workplace mental health care.

The researchers examined information from nearly 20,000 individuals across 20 industries, ranging in age from 16 to 65. This information was gathered as part of the Health Survey for England, a representative cross-sectional survey of the population in England that examines changes in people’s health and lifestyles nationwide. Frontiers in Public Health has published the results.

From 16.0% in 2012–14 to 18.8% in 2016–18, the research team identified a general increase in the number of people reporting mental health difficulties. Three industries—wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, construction, and other service activities—saw significant increases in prevalence, while none of the studied industries saw significant prevalence decreases.

Around one in three (33.7%) people who were not employed reported having problems with common mental health issues. Just under one in four (23.8% and 23.6, respectively) people reported having mental health issues in the hospitality sector (accommodation and food services) and in real estate.

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing (9.6%), mining and quarrying (6.2%), and professional, scientific, and technical activities (15.0%) had the lowest prevalence.

Dr. Shanquan Chen from the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, said, “Jobs that involve working face to face with the public, particularly where the employee has a degree of responsibility, and those that involve working irregular and long hours can all be emotionally demanding or even expose employees to violence and verbal aggression. This in turn could contribute to higher rates of mental health problems.”

“Nevertheless, we would still strongly encourage industry leaders—particularly in those sectors that fare worst, such as the hospitality and real estate sectors—to take an urgent look and try to identify and address the underlying issues.”

Females were more likely than males to experience mental health issues in the majority of industries (11 out of 20). This was most prevalent in the arts, entertainment, and recreation sector, where more than one in four women (26.0%) than one in twenty (5.6%) of men reported having issues. Additionally, women (45.0%) appeared to be significantly more affected by unemployment than men (21.7%).

In all industries from 2012 to 2014 to 2016 to 2018 the gender gap had grown, with the exception of two: human health and social work activities and storage and transportation.

Some risk factors that affect mental health differently depending on gender have been found in prior research. For instance, working full-time reduces the risk of mental problems in men but not in women; fixed-term contracts only increase the risk of mental problems in women; men are more affected by changes in tasks at work than women are; women’s mental problems are caused by a lack of training, a lack of motivation, and a lack of strong social support. The researchers assert that the evidence currently available does not permit an explanation of why discrepancies existed in some industries but not in others.

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