Depressing Jobs

Do you really, really hate your job?

Maybe you suck.

Or maybe you're actually stuck in a depressing job.

The US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has recently released survey results that reveal the rate of depression among full-time employees by occupational category.

Click here to read the full report.

Here's a summary of the overall depression rate by employment status:












Looks like it's less depressing to land a full-time job, which sorta makes sense.

We can use 7% as the baseline rate of depression then. If your job category scores higher than 7%, it may not be your fault - something about your job is a huge emotional drain.

Let's check out the job categories!



















People who work in personal care and services, for example taking care of old folks and stuff, appear to have the highest risk of becoming depressed, at a whopping 10.8%.

Those who work as engineers, architects and surveyors appear to be least depressed.

Hmm... maybe it has something to do with the social dimension of the job.

I guess that dealing with unhappy demanding people all day everyday will eventually take its toll.

But wait, what's that category that's second from the bottom?

"Life, Physical, and Social Science = 4.4%"

Ho ho is that even right!?!!

4.4%!

I can count the number of happy graduate students that I've met in my entire life on one hand!

Ok, on one finger.

How can there be so many non-depressed people in the Sciences?

How can? HOW CAN!??!

Perhaps there's something wrong about the methodology.

Or perhaps I didn't read the fine print...








Ah, it makes much more sense now. Students are NOT part of that job category.

We're lumped together with retired persons, disabled persons and homemakers in the 12.7% "Other" category.

I don't know about retirees, disabled people and homemakers, but I'll bet that at least 50% of the graduate students in the survey were depressed during the previous year.

Whoopsy daisy.