To determine the job stress factors of subway workers and firemen and to develope appropriate stress management systems for the works places.

The study subjects comprised 1,826 male subway workers and 538 male firemen residing in Daegu metropolitan city. The Korean Occupational Stress Scale (KOSS) questionnaire was used.

The median values of the study subjects were lower than the reference values. The categories of physical environment and insufficient job control were more stressful to firemen while the organization system category was stressful to both subway workers and firemen (p<0.05). There was no statistical difference in the stress factor of the interpersonal conflict category. Among the firemen, the physical environment category was more stressful to field work department workers than to desk workers (p<0.05).

The study results suggested that interpersonal conflict and organization system categories are stressful to male subway workers and firemen. Especially, effective control of firemen's physical environment stress factor is needed.