More than half of journalists in the U.S. considered quitting their job this year due to exhaustion or burnout, according to a new report by Muck Rack, reports Poynter.

Muck Rack surveyed 402 journalists in August and found that 40% have previously quit a job due to burnout. That statistic, along with the finding that 56% of journalists have thought about quitting this year, was “staggering,” said the report’s author, Matt Albasi.

“It means we have to have half as many journalists in the wings waiting to move in next year,” said Albasi, a data journalist at Muck Rack. “And we’re going to lose all this institutional knowledge if these people actually do leave.”

One potential reason that figure is so high is because this year is an election year, Albasi said. Newsrooms are putting resources towards covering the election, and that energy shift affects all desks. This is the first time Muck Rack has surveyed journalists about burnout, and Albasi said he doesn’t expect the figure to be as high when he redoes the survey next year.

The journalists surveyed reported that their primary sources of stress include their workload, salary and the expectation that they always be “on.”

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