Young workers report rising stress
A recent report finds India’s youngest workers are entering jobs already marked by higher stress and anxiety, with under‑25 employees showing a sharp rise in mental‑health challenges. The coverage links workplace and personal pressures as contributors to the trend and highlights rising vulnerability among early‑career hires. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)
India’s youngest employees are showing up to work already under strain, with under-25 counselling users rising to 14% in 2025 from 3% a year earlier. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) The data comes from 1to1help’s *State of Emotional Wellbeing Report 2025*, which analyzed more than 100,000 counselling sessions logged between December 2024 and November 2025. Employees aged 25 to 30 still made up the largest share of sessions at 37%, followed by workers aged 31 to 35 at 23%. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) The pattern in the sessions was less about one-off crises than steady mental load. Stress and anxiety were the most common emotional states, and nearly a quarter of cases involved overthinking or rumination. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) The report also tracked where the pressure was coming from. Personal concerns made up 46% of conversations, while workplace-related issues rose to 15% in 2025 from 13% the year before. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) That shift lands as India is leaning on a large youth cohort to drive hiring and growth. The International Labour Organization’s *India Employment Report 2024* framed youth employment, education and skills as a central labor-market issue for the country. (ilo.org) Other surveys have been picking up the same pressure from a different angle. Deloitte said in May 2025 that 33% of Gen Z workers in India felt stressed or anxious all or most of the time, and 36% said their job contributed a lot to those feelings. (deloitte.com) ADP’s 2023 India findings also pointed to workplace strain before this latest 1to1help report. ADP said 76% of Indian workers reported stress hurting work performance, while 49% said it affected their mental health. (adp.com) The younger skew was visible in 1to1help’s 2024 report as well. The Hindu reported in January 2025 that more than 90% of corporate employees under 25 showed signs of anxiety, compared with 67% of employees over 45. (thehindu.com) Women accounted for about 53% of counselling sessions in the 2025 data, compared with 46% for men, even though women’s workforce participation is lower. The report said men were more likely to seek help for workplace issues, while women more often sought support for social and relationship concerns. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) The picture in these reports is of early-career workers arriving with stress that employers used to associate with later burnout. In the 1to1help data, that strain was already showing up in sleep, communication, self-care and productivity. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)
