Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Iwate University, 3-18-34 Ueda, Morioka, Iwate, 020-8550, Japan.
Urban Institute & Department of Civil Engineering, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan.
BMC Public Health. 2022 May 18;22(1):1005. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13257-y.
This study provides objective evidence on the impact of COVID-19 based on employee occupational stress reported from 13 different industries, and examines the determinants of employee psychological well-being. As the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue, governments should consider industry-level differences when making support decisions concerning public resource allocation to corporations. However, little evidence exists regarding the differences in occupational stress across industries.
Employee occupational stress data (N = 673,071) was derived from workers in Japan from 2018 to 2020. The sample comprises workers from 13 industries, including civil services, service industry (other), real estate, medical/welfare, wholesale/retail, academic research, and accommodation/restaurant business. A logit model is employed to investigate the differences in employees' psychological well-being before and during the pandemic.
In 2020, 11 out of 12 industries had significantly worse occupational stress compared to employees engaged in civil services. Over 23% of employees from the wholesale/retail and accommodation/restaurant industries were observed as high-stress employees. Improved compensation policies supporting these industries are suggested. In contrast, reduced occupational stress was found among employees in the transportation/postal and information/communication industries. Among the 13 industries, aside from high job demands, tough inter-person relationships in the workplace became the most significant stressors during the pandemic.
The results confirm that the pandemic has had a heterogeneous effect on employee occupational stress across industries, thus suggesting that the level of compensation given to different industries during the COVID-19 pandemic should be discussed and approved by the Japanese government. Additionally, support for the wholesale/retail and accommodation/restaurant industries during the pandemic should be improved.
本研究基于来自 13 个不同行业的员工职业压力报告，提供了 COVID-19 影响的客观证据，并研究了员工心理健康的决定因素。随着 COVID-19 大流行的经济和社会影响持续存在，政府在做出有关公共资源向企业分配的支持决策时，应考虑行业层面的差异。然而，关于各行业职业压力差异的证据很少。
员工职业压力数据（N=673071）来自 2018 年至 2020 年期间的日本工人。样本包括来自 13 个行业的工人，包括公务员、服务业（其他）、房地产、医疗/福利、批发/零售、学术研究和住宿/餐饮业务。采用逻辑回归模型研究大流行前后员工心理健康的差异。
2020 年，12 个行业中有 11 个行业的职业压力明显高于从事公务员行业的员工。批发/零售和住宿/餐饮行业超过 23%的员工被视为高压力员工。建议支持这些行业的薪酬政策。相比之下，运输/邮政和信息/通信行业的员工职业压力有所降低。在这 13 个行业中，除了工作要求高之外，工作场所紧张的人际关系也成为大流行期间最大的压力源。
研究结果证实，大流行对各行业员工职业压力的影响具有异质性，因此建议日本政府讨论并批准 COVID-19 期间向不同行业支付的薪酬水平。此外，应在大流行期间加强对批发/零售和住宿/餐饮行业的支持。
