A recent study shows that younger workers are more depressed than their older counterparts…and it looks like it's not going to get any better.

"Our statistics show us younger employees-the Generation Xers and the Millennials-are the ones reporting the highest rates of depression and anxiety symptoms," said Rod Phillips, president and CEO of WarrenShepell, the company that produced the report. "And it looks like it's going from bad to worse."

The report, Workplace Mental Health Indicators: An EAP's Perspective, showed a "tremendous jump" in depression rates to 7.85% among the 20 to 29-year-old age group-a group that represents about one-third of the labour pool-compared to 6.91% for employees over 50. Anger symptoms which were more common among younger workers (3.04%) went down with age (1.55%). Phillips urged employers to understand why the younger workforce are having so many emotional problems and take steps to help them, especially in view of the fact that these employees will play an increasingly important role in the years ahead as older workers retire.

And maybe happiness and hard work go hand in hand. A recent Harris Poll found that 53% of workers 55 and older answered "yes" when asked if they were willing to put forth more effort at work than their younger colleagues.