Booming Business in Recession Stress

If you feel particularly stressed at work, you're not alone.

The CEO of the nation's biggest provider of counseling programs for workers says he's seeing a dramatic increase in the use of these employer-sponsored services.

The last time Richard A. Chaifetz saw so many workers tapping employee assistance programs, which include psychological, financial and other types of counseling, was after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But Mr. Chaifetz, chief executive of Chicago-based ComPsych Corp., says the recession is having a longer-lasting effect.

"Usage is more sustained, more chronic," he says, "it's not due to any one-time events like 9-11."

Usually, ComPsych fields calls from about 731,000 people a year seeking assistance. Calls are running as much as 15% higher than normal, says Dr. Chaifetz, a neuropsychologist.

Employees in retail, financial services and real estate-related jobs are showing the biggest uptick, he says. The number of suicides and suicide-related hospitalizations doubled in the past year, Dr. Chaiefetz says, without providing figures.