Unemployed Job Seeker Attitudes towards Potential Travel-to-Work Times

Abstract

The effectiveness of intra-regional job search is influenced by how far people are willing to travel to new employment. While much has been written on the commuting patterns of those in work, relatively little research has been carried out on how far unemployed job seekers are prepared to commute. This paper presents and tests a model of factors influencing the maximum time unemployed job seekers would be willing to travel to a potential new job. Significant effects are found for a range of personal and demographic characteristics, including gender, years of education, type of job, and location. The evidence suggests support for the spatial mismatch hypothesis and shows differing accessibility to employment opportunities for certain types of unemployed people. The findings also suggest that models of the trade-off between leisure and work time should fully include travel-to-work time as part of this trade-off.