Half of the survey’s respondents believe unmanageable workloads are the main cause of the problem.

Other factors blamed for rising stress included employees’ personal circumstances (cited by 15 per cent as the main cause), organisational change (12 per cent) and pressure from managers (nine per cent).

Companies are not ignoring the problem, the survey suggests. Half of the respondents claim their company canvasses employees’ stress levels once a year, and 18 per cent say this happens on a quarterly basis.

Nevertheless, a third of companies admit they have no facilities in place to monitor stress levels, and offer no counselling or support.

A separate Reed survey of 2,500 jobseekers last December revealed that almost three-quarters (73 per cent) felt their companies should be doing more to look after their well-being by offering gym membership discounts, free fruit, stop-smoking schemes or lunchtime yoga sessions.