Half of Filipino Workers Report Daily Stress, the Highest in Southeast Asia
Half of Filipino workers said they felt stress for much of the previous day in 2025, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2026 report. That is the highest rate in Southeast Asia, where the average is 25 percent. The global average is 40 percent.
The same data shows Filipino workers are engaged. Thirty-nine percent are, compared with 20 percent worldwide. Only 34 percent say they are thriving in life, and 31 percent reported a lot of sadness the previous day.
Engaged, but not okay
Gallup’s head of consulting, Shruti Rastogi, said the two results are not a contradiction. Workers can be committed to their jobs and under strain at the same time.
A separate nationwide survey by Agile Data Solutions Inc. points the same way. It polled 1,111 working Filipinos and found that one in three described themselves as generally or completely exhausted six months into 2026. Sixty percent said their careers had stalled, even though 84 percent said they were satisfied with them. About three in four respondents were aged 18 to 34.
What the stress costs
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization estimate that 12 billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety. The cost to the global economy is nearly US$1 trillion.
Those figures do not measure burnout. WHO classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon, not a medical condition. It defines burnout as a syndrome that results from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
Gallup tracks something else: engagement. Its 2026 report estimates that low engagement cost the world economy about $10 trillion in lost productivity, or 9 percent of global GDP. Global engagement fell to 20 percent in 2025, the lowest since 2020. That is also not a burnout count.
Bosses are struggling too
Global manager engagement fell from 31 percent in 2022 to 22 percent in 2025. Gallup also found that leaders, defined as managers of managers, were seven percentage points more likely than individual contributors to report a lot of stress the previous day. That finding is global, not specific to the Philippines.
WHO’s guidelines recommend manager training in mental health. They also list flexible working arrangements among the steps employers can take to reduce workplace risks.
Hours, pay, or time: the sources disagree
In the Agile Data Solutions survey, difficulty keeping work-life balance ranked as the leading cause of burnout. It came ahead of compensation, workload and management issues.
Others point elsewhere. Kamanggagawa Party-list Rep. Eli San Fernando, reacting to the Gallup numbers, blamed low wages. Rene Magtubo, chairman of the labor group Partido Manggagawa, cited long working hours, heavy traffic, crowded commutes, pay that falls short of family needs, and the threat of contract termination for contractual workers.
WHO’s guidelines name heavy workloads among the risks to mental health at work. A WHO and ILO policy brief also lists long, inflexible hours and job insecurity. None of these sources settles which factor matters most for Filipino workers.
What workers say they want back
Agile Data Solutions reported that respondents want time to recharge, spend with family, pursue hobbies and disconnect from work without guilt. Four in five said they were optimistic, or at least cautiously hopeful, about the second half of 2026.
