The present study uses the case of social work to test the thesis that client-oriented occupations contribute to suicide by increasing psychological stress. The results of a preliminary logistic regression analysis found that being a social worker increased the odds of death by suicide by 55.6%, compared to the rest of the working age population. When controls for other occupations were incorporated into the analysis, social workers were no longer at elevated odds of death by suicide relative to other professional-managerial occupations. Implications are discussed. (31 refs)