Hospitality Leaders Experience Worst Mental Health Across UK Industries

A 2025 Workforce Report commissioned by Startups.co.uk has revealed that hospitality leaders experience the worst mental health across all surveyed UK industries – 14% of hospitality business leaders report ‘poor’ mental health

Considering that just 6% of business leaders across all industries report ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ mental health, this means Hospitality & Tourism leaders have more than double the average score.

Falling close behind is the Consulting & Services sector at 9% of business leaders in this industry report poor mental health.

Business leaders reporting poor mental health, by industry:
1. Hospitality & Tourism (14%)
2. Consulting & Services (9%)
3. Finance & Fintech (8%)
4. Creative Arts & Media (8%)
5. Healthcare & Life Sciences (4%)

Why is hospitality the most stressful industry to lead?

Slow recovery post-pandemic:

• Hospitality & Tourism’s slow business recovery following the pandemic, and a pessimism for future business growth, are both likely, the report reveals, to be contributing to business leader stress in this sector.

• Just 11% of business leaders in Hospitality & Tourism say their company has already recovered from the previous five years.

Lack of business optimism:

• Hospitality leaders were also found to be the least optimistic about the future.

• 70% of hospitality firms said they were optimistic about growth in 2025, the lowest of any sector.

• This shows a dip in confidence of 10 percentage points from the end of 2023, when 80% of hospitality companies said they were somewhat or highly optimistic about the future.

Editor of Startups.co.uk, Zohra Huda, comments: “Our Workplace Report has revealed hospitality bosses are the most stressed business leaders – are we really that surprised in the wake of Brexit, lockdowns, food inflation and changing work patterns?

“Now, with the recent NIC rises coming into effect and reduced consumer spending impacting the UK’s pubs, bars and restaurants, there’s even more pressure on frazzled sector owners. Let’s hope the sun comes out for them this summer in one way or another.”