WASHINGTON — If you still have a job in this economy, you’re supposed to feel grateful. But stress is what more people tend to feel at work these days, and a new study finds that for those who experience such strain on the job, the risk of developing heart disease increases by about 25 percent.

That elevated heart attack risk, however, is less high than has been widely supposed, the authors of the new study wrote last month in the journal Neurology. While addressing workplace stress might help improve employees’ health, they said, there’s lower-hanging fruit that would yield higher health benefits, including an expansion of efforts to get smokers to kick the habit.

Job stress is defined by high demands at work and/or a worker’s low level of control over work hours and conditions.