Burnout symptoms, sickness absence and employee engagement

At the end of 2025 over 53,000 employees completed the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey (NEA), the twenty-first edition by TNO and Statistics Netherlands (CBS). The share with burnout symptoms, defined in the survey as emotional exhaustion caused by work, came out at 21 per cent. Two years earlier it was 19 per cent, and in 2015 just 13. Education and IT top the list at 25 per cent each, with agriculture at the bottom on 11. Of all employees, 15 per cent had a high-strain job, a combination of little autonomy and high job demands; among women it was 20 per cent, among men 11. Separately, 43 per cent experience little autonomy and 31 per cent high job demands.

RIVM, the Dutch public health institute, breaks the same NEA data down by group. Of male employees, 18.0 per cent have burnout symptoms, and of female employees 23.5. By age, it ranges from 8.5 per cent among 65- to 74-year-olds to 28.2 per cent among 25- to 34-year-olds. Those with higher education (higher professional education or university) stand at 23.1 per cent, the lowest education group at 18.3. The self-employed report fewer symptoms, 11.8 per cent, but there too the figure has risen, from 7.5 per cent in 2015.

TNO and CBS also asked whether anything is being done about it. In 2025, 37 per cent of employees felt (additional) measures were needed against work pressure and work stress; in 2022 the figure was 41 per cent. The need is greatest in education (50 per cent) and almost as great in healthcare (47). Employees in these two sectors mainly say that what has been done so far is not enough, and about one in ten say nothing at all has happened. On average, an employee was off sick for eight days last year.

Outside the Netherlands the needle points the same way. In 2025 Gallup surveyed 263,810 people in more than 140 countries, including 141,444 workers, and measured engagement at 20 per cent: the second fall in a row and the lowest level since 2020, after a peak of 23 per cent in 2022. A third of employees (34 per cent) say they are thriving. Negative emotions have eased since their peak, but remain above pre-2020 levels. Managers come off worst, with 46 per cent reporting a lot of stress.

For education, TNO analysed the NEA figures separately on behalf of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). The report Werkdruk in het onderwijs (Workload in education) of 11 December 2025 uses the autumn 2024 measurement, which since 2018 has included extra employees from primary and secondary education, with a target of at least 4,000 per type of school. Secondary teachers report burnout symptoms most often: 31.9 per cent, rising to 37.2 per cent among secondary teachers in the five largest municipalities. Within secondary education, female teachers (36.1 per cent) and younger teachers (34.0 per cent) score higher. Over 2018 to 2024, TNO sees no clear trend among teachers; the symptoms fluctuate. Between 2023 and 2024, however, the share with burnout symptoms rose clearly among education support and other staff, especially in primary education.

Sickness absence is highest in healthcare. On 4 June 2026 CBS reported that employee sickness absence in the first quarter of 2026 stood at 5.8 per cent, above the average of 5.0 per cent since 1996. Health and social care had the highest rate of any industry, at 8.2 per cent. Within care, nursing, residential care and home care stood at 9.9 per cent, and social work rose from 7.7 to 8.3 per cent. Over 2025 as a whole, absence was 5.4 per cent; 23 per cent of those absent said the absence was wholly or partly caused by their work.

How solid is this? The Dutch series covers ten years and has pointed the same way since 2015, with over 53,000 respondents per measurement. RIVM draws on the same NEA data, so there are two independent datasets (TNO/CBS and Gallup), not three. Whether the gap between women and men is widening cannot be inferred from the sources consulted; only the 2025 position is known.