Over the past few years, professionals throughout the labor market have been navigating economic, political, and social shifts, the impacts of a public health crisis, and the changing nature of work and workplaces. In 2023, for the first time, NACE conducted a poll among its members to gauge their emotional well-being. Through that study, we found that a significant proportion of our members were struggling with mental health challenges.

In spring 2025, we conducted a follow-up poll to better understand the current mental health concerns. Our survey was sent to all members and was in the field from April 3 to April 18, 2025. Our sample consists of 958 respondents, of which 89% represent college members, 10% represent employer members, and 1% represent business affiliate members.

Members Weigh in on Mental Health

Overall, most of our members self-rate their mental health as good or fair. (See Figure 1.)

However, when we looked deeper and asked about specific mental health indicators, we found that about 90% of members reported feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge over the past four weeks. (See Figure 2.) In addition, as shown in Figure 3, more than half of participants self-reported that their mental health was worse at the time of the poll than it was last year at the same time.

Factors Impacting Mental Health

More than three-quarters of our participants cited federal policies as impacting their mental health, and 70% of participants reported that social issues and the challenges facing higher education were factors. (See Figure 4.)

Interestingly, Figure 4 suggests that workplace issues were less a factor in members’ mental health than larger socio-political issues. For example, a little more than half reported workplace demands were impacting their mental health, and about a third reported workplace culture as a factor. However, when asked specifically about job burnout, nearly 70% of respondents reported some level of job burnout over the past four weeks. (See Figure 5.)

Looking at the Future of Higher Ed, College Recruiting

NACE members are not very optimistic about the future of higher education over the next year: Overall, 60% reported that they are pessimistic; less than 20% said they were optimistic.

Slightly higher percentages of responding members were optimistic about the college recruiting over the next year—23% said they were optimistic about the future of college recruiting over the next year, and fewer than half said they were pessimistic.  

Workplace Support

Although members taking part in the poll reported a substantial amount of pessimism and anxiety, a majority also characterized their mental health as good to fair, which suggests that they believe they are handling the challenge.

This may be down to their support systems: In fact, 40% of respondents reported speaking with someone at their workplace about mental health problems that were affecting their job performance/productivity. Of those, virtually all (95%) said that the response of the individuals in their workplace was supportive.