Survey finds 42% of Americans have not been on vacation in the last 12 months

As the summer vacation season comes to a close, a large share of Americans reported not taking vacation time, often due to the high costs if travel.

According to a new survey conducted by Eagle Hill Consulting, 42% of American workers said they have not taken a vacation during the last 12 months ”“ and that number was higher among younger workers (50%) and lower income employees (56%).

Among those polled, the biggest obstacles that prevented their taking a vacation was the expense (47%), a self-imposed pressure to stay on top of work (31%), a heavy workload (27%), no paid time off from their job (25%) and no colleagues available to cover their workload (25%).

Sadly, many of these people could use a vacation ”“ 49% of the survey respondents said they are feeling burnout at work. And as for those who are able to get away, 28% said they check work email and messages while they are supposed to be taking time off and 6% said they continue to work during vacation.

“Employees really need time to disconnect from work, especially as we continue to see high burnout levels across the U.S. workforce,” said Melissa Jezior, president and CEO of Eagle Hill Consulting. “And ideally, employees should fully disengage from work rather than constantly checking email and responding to messages.”

The findings are based up a survey of 1,000 adults conducted from Aug. 11-16.