'Worker loneliness is surging to unprecedented levels'

Professor Christina Boedker says workers are more lonely in the pandemic era. Picture supplied.

MORE than half of Australian employees feel lonely in their work, another 15 per cent feel "extremely lonely", and those aged below 29 feel lonelier than any other age group, new data shows.

Drawn from a survey of 2500 workers in industries ranging from mining to the arts, the data is the first to be released by the Australian Workplace Index (AWI), a benchmarking tool developed by the University of Newcastle and The Australian National University with the aim of lifting performance in organisations nationwide.