Unemployed job seeker attitudes towards potential travel-to-work times

The effectiveness of intra-regional job search is influenced by how far peo ple are willing to travel to new employment. While much has been written on the commuting patterns of those in work, relatively little research has be en carried out on how far unemployed job seekers are prepared to commute. T his paper presents and tests a model of factors influencing the maximum tim e unemployed job seekers would be willing to travel to a potential new job. Significant effects are found for a range of personal and demographic char acteristics, including gender, years of education, type of job, and locatio n. The evidence suggests support for the spatial mismatch hypothesis and sh ows differing accessibility to employment opportunities for certain types o f 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.