Older American workers seem to have relatively low levels of job-related stress according to a new study.

A team of University of Michigan Researchers who examined existing surveys from 2006 conducted the study. The surveys included questions referring to various reasons leading to stress at work. Other questions pointed at how the level of stress had interfered with personal life and health condition.

There were 1,544 participants at the study with ages between 53 and 85 and working at least 20 hours per week. Over half of the participants were male, 87 percent were white, about 8 percent were black and 7 percent were Hispanic.

"In general, older workers did not report high levels of work-related stressors," Gwenith Fisher, a researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research said.

The researchers found out that only 15 percent of study participants said their work interfered with their personal lives more or less.

"Many older workers are empty-nesters. They don't have the same work-personal conflicts that younger and middle-aged workers deal with, juggling responsibilities to children along with their jobs and personal needs," Fisher said.

The study also revealed that two percent of the workers said their personal lives interfered with their job; almost 50 percent agreed that they have competing demands being made on them at work and 47 percent said that time pressures are a source of job stress. Only 19 percent said that they have poor job security.

"Given what we know about the extent of age discrimination at work and the current economic climate regarding unemployment, this is a surprisingly low number," Fisher said.

Other results of the study said that workers who have a lower level of stress at work are more content with their life and have better overall physical health than those who face higher levels of stress.

The researchers presented the results of the study at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, in San Francisco.