Self-rated mental health across occupational groups: Health Infobase

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Background

Positive mental health is a state of well-being that allows us to feel, think, and act in ways that enhance our ability to enjoy life and deal with challenges. Positive mental health is different than mental illness.

The positive mental health of Canada's population decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic^{Footnote 1Footnote 2Footnote 3Footnote 4}. There is research on the positive mental health of frontline and essential workers during the pandemic^{Footnote 4}. However, there is less information for other occupational groups. An occupational group is a collection of jobs that do similar work or use similar skills.

This page presents information on high self-rated mental health (SRMH) for nine occupational groups. We used data from the 2021 Survey on Mental Health and Stressful Events^{Footnote 5}. The survey measures self-rated mental health by asking people to rate their mental health on a scale from “excellent” to “poor”. We categorized people with “excellent” or “very good” mental health as having high SRMH. High SRMH is an indicator of positive mental health^{Footnote 2}.

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Summary of findings

Less than half (45.7%) of working adults reported high SRMH during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were differences in high SRMH across groups. Key findings include:

• within occupational groups, the prevalence of high SRMH varied by gender and age
• women and young adults aged 18–34 in most occupation groups had lower SRMH compared to men and adults aged 45-64, respectively
• adults aged 35–44 in select occupations had lower SRMH compared to adults aged 45–64

Occupational groups with lower SRMH may benefit from targeted mental health interventions. There may also be a need for broad policies that promote mental health to the overall working population in Canada.

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Findings by occupational group

Compared to the rest of the working adult population:

• high SRMH was more common in the "Natural and applied sciences and related occupations" and "Trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations"
• high SRMH was less common in the "Sales and service occupations"

Notes

• Source: 2021 Survey on Mental Health and Stressful Events
• Notes:
  • All estimates are weighted.
  • Errors bars represent 95% confidence intervals.
  • *We used unadjusted logistic regression (p-value < 0.05) to establish statistically significant differences for each occupational group compared to the rest of the working adult population.

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Findings by occupational group and gender

Across most occupational groups, high SRMH was more common among men compared to women.

Notes

• Source: 2021 Survey on Mental Health and Stressful Events
• Notes:
  • All estimates are weighted.
  • Errors bars represent 95% confidence intervals.
  • E: Estimate should be interpreted with caution due to high sampling variability (unweighted count of the number of respondents in the denominator is at least 50 but below 100).
  • F: We cannot release the estimate due to extremely high sampling variability (unweighted count of the number of respondents in the denominator is below 50).
  • * We used unadjusted logistic regression (p-value < 0.05) to establish statistically significant differences between men and women. We did not compare gender for "Natural resources, agriculture and related production occupations" and "Manufacturing and utilities occupations" due to extremely high sampling variability.

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Findings by occupational group and age group

Of the groups we compared, the 45-64 age group was more likely to report high SRMH than:

• 18–34-year-olds across most occupational groups (except "Art, culture, recreation and sport occupations")
• 35–44-year-olds in "Business, finance and administration occupations" and "Sales and service occupations"

Notes

• Source: 2021 Survey on Mental Health and Stressful Events
• Notes:
  • The 45-64 category was the reference group.
  • All estimates are weighted.
  • Errors bars represent 95% confidence intervals.
  • E: Estimate should be interpreted with caution due to high sampling variability (unweighted count of the number of respondents in the denominator is at least 50 but below 100).
  • F: We cannot release the estimate due to extremely high sampling variability (unweighted count of the number of respondents in the denominator is below 50).
  • * We used unadjusted logistic regression (p-value < 0.05) to establish statistically significant differences between age groups. We did not compare age groups for "Natural resources, agriculture and related production occupations" and "Manufacturing and utilities occupations" due to extremely high sampling variability.

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About the data source

Statistics Canada ran the 2021 Mental Health and Stressful Events survey from August to December 2021^{Footnote 5}. The population for the survey was:

• people aged 18 years and older, living in the 10 provinces
• people living in the three territories, on reserve, in institutions, or in collective dwellings were not part of the survey
• we limited our study population to people between the ages of 18-64 who reported working in the week before completing the survey (N=7054)

Due to the limited sample size, we were unable to report results for racialized populations and non-binary people.

We based occupational groups on the National Occupational Classification (NOC) broad occupational categories^{Footnote 6Footnote 7}. We did not report:

• survey respondents whose occupational group could not be coded according to the NOC
• "Legislative and senior management occupations" because of the small sample size

We need data from specific jobs within the occupational groups for more detailed estimates of mental health outcomes.

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Related links

• Positive Mental Health Surveillance Indicator Framework
• Health Inequalities Data Tool
• Inequalities in the mental health of adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: data tool
• Health of People in Canada Dashboard
• Map of Canadian mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic