Objectives In China, there have been an increasing number of migrant workers from rural to urban areas, and migrant workers have the highest incidence of occupational diseases. However, few studies have examined the impact of occupational stress on job burnout in these migrant workers. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between occupational stress and job burnout among migrant workers.

Design This study used a cross-sectional survey.

Setting This investigation was conducted in Dongguan city, Guangdong Province, China.

Participants 3806 migrant workers, aged 18–60 years, were randomly selected using multistage sampling procedures.

Primary and secondary outcome measures Multistage sampling procedures were used to examine demographic characteristics, behaviour customs and job-related data. Hierarchical linear regression and logistic regression models were constructed to explore the relationship between occupational stress and burnout.

Results Demographics, behaviour customs and job-related characteristics significantly affected on burnout. After adjusting for the control variable, a high level of emotional exhaustion was associated with high role overload, high role insufficiency, high role boundary, high physical environment, high psychological strain, high physical strain, low role ambiguity, low responsibility and low vocational strain. A high level of depersonalisation was associated with high role overload, high role ambiguity, high role boundary, high interpersonal strain, high recreation, low physical environment and low social support. A low level of personal accomplishment was associated with high role boundary, high role insufficiency, low responsibility, low social support, low physical environment, low self-care and low interpersonal strain. Compared to the personal resources, the job strain and personal strain were more likely to explain the burnout of rural-to-urban migrant workers in our study.

Conclusions The migrant workers have increased job burnouts in relation to occupational stress. Relieving occupational stress and maintaining an appropriate quantity and quality of work could be important measures for preventing job burnout among these workers.