Cyprus has recorded the highest levels of employee burnout in Europe, with new data showing elevated rates of both physical and emotional exhaustion among workers compared with other countries across the continent.

Findings from the European Working Conditions Survey 2024 released on Wednesday, conducted by Eurofound, indicate that nearly 44 per cent of workers in Cyprus report feeling physically exhausted at the end of the working day, the highest rate among the 35 countries surveyed.

This compares with significantly lower levels elsewhere, including 18 per cent in the Netherlands.

Across the European Union, 8 per cent of workers say they “always” feel physically exhausted, while 20 per cent report feeling this way “most of the time”.

The data also reports gender differences, with 30 per cent of women reporting frequent physical exhaustion compared with 26 per cent of men.

Cyprus also records low performance in the work intensity index, scoring 56 points compared with higher scores of 71 in countries such as Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Poland.

The index measures factors including time pressure and strict deadlines, suggesting differences in how workloads are structured across countries.

Working patterns in Cyprus further reflect pressure on employees, as data shows that 21 per cent of workers report working six or seven days per week, placing the country among those with the highest rates of extended working schedules alongside Greece at 38 per cent and Italy at 34 per cent.

At the European level, the dominant working pattern remains five days per week at 35 to 40 hours, reported by 51 per cent of employees.

Separate findings from Gallup recently placed Cyprus among the most stressed workforces in Europe.

The data shows that 56 per cent of employees report experiencing stress, second only to Greece at 61 per cent and ahead of Malta at 57 per cent.

Italy and Spain follow at 51 per cent and 47 per cent respectively.

Gallup states that “stressed or disengaged employees are not only a risk to staff retention” but also affect productivity, estimating losses of up to 9 per cent of global GDP.