We investigated the usefulness of peripheral blood pressure (BP) measurement in the assessment of strain in occupational physiology. Our hypothesis was that the brachial and peripheral BP reflect physiologically different events under various occupation-related demands in normotensive (NT) and hypertensive (HT) people. A group of 20 female and 20 male subjects with unmedicated mild hypertension that had been diagnosed by ambulatory blood pressure monitoring [awake time systolic/diastolic BP (BPs/BPd) 142.9 (SD 11.3)/86.4 (SD 6.2) mmHg] and 40 NT matched by age and sex [BPs/BPd 120.0 (SD 9.8)/75.6 (SD 5.9) mmHg] attended a laboratory session to undertake mental arithmetic tasks, a fingergrip test and submaximal cycle ergometry. Brachial and peripheral BP as well as heart rate were measured using a sphygmomanometer and an continuously automatic blood pressure measuring device on the finger, respectively. The peripheral BPs was higher than brachial BPs, BPd was similar for peripheral and brachial BP except during cycle ergometry. Associations between the levels of brachial and peripheral BP depended on demands and did not explain more than 42% of the common variance. The highest correlations between the two BP methods were observed during habituation, recovery and mental demands, and weak correlations during cycle ergometry. For peripheral BPs and BPd we found significant correlations in all phases of the test (r = 0.58 to 0.86, P < 0.001), also in ergometry (NT r = 0.62, P < 0.001, HT r = 0.53, P < 0.001), in contrast to the brachial BP. Peripheral BP differentiated the two BP groups (57.5%-72.5% correctly classified) which had been grouped by daily measurement of brachial BP, but brachial BP was superior in this respect with 65.0%-87.5% being correctly classified. These results supported the suggestion that the combined measurement of peripheral and brachial BP provides complementary information regarding physiological changes in NT and HT in different situations.