Macroeconomic Costs of Mental Illness (Across All Sectors)
- Moon Löffler
- Feb 3
- 2 min read
Mental illnesses cause significant economic costs in Switzerland. Estimates put the total direct and indirect costs of mental illnesses at around CHF 19 billion per year, which corresponds to approximately 3.2% of GDP. A large portion of this burden falls on the working world: Work-related stress alone is estimated to cost the Swiss economy CHF 6.5–7.6 billion annually. This amount is mainly due to reduced productivity caused by absenteeism (sick leave) and presenteeism (reduced performance despite being present). In 2020, the productivity loss was calculated at CHF 7.6 billion—of which around CHF 2.17 billion (28%) resulted from absences and CHF 5.46 billion (72%) from continuing to work inefficiently while ill.
These costs are on the rise: Sick leave days have increased to record levels in recent years (in 2022, an average of 9.3 days of absence per full-time employee—a 34% increase compared to 2019). Experts estimate that a single day of employee absence costs a company around CHF 600–1000. Extrapolated to 2022, this results in total economic costs of approximately CHF 22 billion due to sickness absences.
A growing portion of this is linked to mental stress in the workplace. Today, over 40% of new disability pensions are due to psychological reasons, and sick leave due to mental health issues has been increasing steadily for years. Surveys and studies underscore the rising pressure on employees: depending on the survey, between one-third and nearly half of workers report feeling frequently stressed or emotionally exhausted.
According to the Job Stress Index 2022, more than 30% of the working population reported feeling “quite or very” emotionally exhausted—for the first time since the index began. This psychosocial burden directly affects companies across all industries—through rising absences, reduced productivity, and higher social insurance premiums.
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