Increased stress and anxiety in the workplace, reportedly costing the economy £28bn, could be one of the reasons for greater use of temporary agency workers, says de Poel.

The procurer of temporary agency labour says that aside from a cross-sector skills shortage, the demand for temporary agency staff in recent years could have been intensified by work-related mental illness.

Chief executive of de Poel, Matthew Sanders, says: “The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has reported how more than 13m working days a year are lost because of work-related stress, anxiety and depression.

“This comes as no surprise to de Poel, as we have seen a consistent increase in the number of companies relying upon temporary agency staff to substitute their workforce since our company first started up.

“Aside from the cross-skills shortage, there is a good possibility that employee absenteeism due to work-related mental illness has contributed to the high demand for temporary agency workers, particularly in sectors like care, which can be extremely stressful for its staff.”