Public speaking was the 7th most commonly stressful activity in an online survey done for Hired.com

How stressful is public speaking compared with other situations? This fall the job search web site Hired.com had Harris Poll do an online survey including asking about the following ten stressful activities:

Being trapped in an elevator
Death of a loved one
Doing your taxes
Getting a root canal
Going through a divorce or breakup
Looking for a job
Moving
Planning a wedding
Public speaking
Spending a weekend with the in-laws

They asked 2,557 full-time employed adults in the US, UK, and Australia whether they were:

Not at all stressful
Not very stressful
Somewhat stressful
Very stressful

Results were reported on a web page with the cryptic title of The Opportunity Index - subtitled Perceptions of Mobility & The Job Search. As shown above in a bar chart (for the sum of Somewhat stressful and Very stressful) the top five were Death of a loved one (94%), Going through a divorce or breakup (92%), Looking for a job (83%), Moving (82%), and Planning a wedding (78%). Then came Getting a root canal (73%) and Public speaking (70%) was seventh.