Study ranks steelworker job as most stressful

A study conducted by a Florida-based personal injury law firm has found being a steelworker could be one of the most stressful jobs in the United States.

The Clearwater, Florida-based Dolman Law Group conducted research on 10 occupations to rank them by their stressful nature and concluded, “We see a lot of stress in the current job market, across many industries.”

The study examined median salary, average work hours as well as unemployment rate and percentage of people changing jobs after the first two years, and the score for the ranking was made taking into account data as well as unique stress factors.

Steelworkers topped the ranking of the most stressful jobs with a 9.94 score out of a possible 10. Dolman says the high score reflects the high physical demand of the occupation, work hazards and long shifts.

The law firm also reports, compared with other high-stress occupations, the steel mill sector has a high unemployment rate of 10.5 percent and a low median salary of around $58,500 per year.

Dolman describes stressful factors in steel mill work as including physically demanding and potentially hazardous tasks and shifts of up to 12 hours. The stress has resulted in 28 percent of new mill workers changing jobs after less than a year, according to the law firm.

The United Steelworkers (USW), which represents some mill workers in the U.S., lists as its second founding principle, “To increase the wages, and improve the conditions of employment of our members by legislation, joint agreements or other legitimate means.”

Nonunion mill companies, such as Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor Corp. claim success at attracting and retaining workers in part with a performance-based bonus system that can provide income well above the figure cited by Dolman.

On its website, Nucor writes in part, “Our profit-sharing program sets aside at least 10 cents out of every dollar that Nucor earns before taxes. So far Nucor has paid out over $2 billion to Nucor teammates” via the system.

The steelmaker also claims, “If you do your job today, you can have confidence you will have a job tomorrow. Nucor has a longstanding practice of not laying off teammates due to lack of work.”

In the Dolman study, steel mill work is one of three of the 10 jobs studied to typically require only a high school diploma. The next two most stressful jobs, according to Dolman’s, research are surgeon and anesthesiologist, each of which requires considerable postsecondary education.

According to Dolman, the next most stressful jobs after those three among those they studied were: paramedic, firefighter, lawyer, security guard, clinical social worker, patrol officer and child and family social worker.