The Dutch have a dubious honor: of all Europeans we travel the longest to and from work. One trend is to look for a new job closer to home. This saves travel time, annoyance and travel costs. Job boards are responding to this trend. Travel time appears to be a major factor in determining whether an employee accepts a job or not. That is why recruiting people regionally is also of growing importance for employers. Read on for facts, figures, research and tips. What determines the choice for one job or another? You quickly think about money, colleagues and growth opportunities. But we are more practical than you think. According to research by GoudenGidsBanen.nl into our commuting to and from work, the distance to your work is an important factor. It appears that during the wet and cold seasons of autumn and winter, more people look for a new job in their (more) immediate living environment. Why? Because we don’t like to travel a lot and for a long time every day. And it is precisely the bad weather and the associated traffic jams that lengthen our travel time terribly. It is striking that mainly lower and medium-educated people participate in this ‘winter migration’.
November time, time for a job closer
The month of November is one of those months in which we become more aware of the disadvantages of our commute and the traveling time we spend every day. Bad weather, frequency and length of traffic jams and in general the increased problems surrounding reaching our destination in an overcrowded country are important causes for our need to change jobs. This is also evident from the research. We just don’t want to spend so long on the way to work. In that respect, the Dutch are negatively praised. Of all European employees, we spend the longest time commuting to work. On average we spend around 50 minutes a day on the way to or from work. That is close to the absolute upper limit. It turns out that one in six Dutch people, or almost 60%, considers an hour of daily travel time to be the limit of what is acceptable.
How do you find a job nearby?
There is another important factor that causes us to look for a job more regionally. We cannot or hardly move to a house that is closer to our (future) workplace. The housing market is now firmly locked down. Job vacancy sites also respond to the greater importance of the regional labor market. The so-called recruitment circle for employers is expected to be up to 55% smaller in 2015. That is why job sites such as GoudenGidsBanen.nl mainly focus on ‘jobs nearby’. Travel time is not only a factor that you as an employee increasingly take into account, it is also an important factor for employers. Travel time has been the most important ‘deterrent factor’ for several years in a row when it comes to the question of why a potential employee does not choose a particular employer. This was evident from research by Mobiliteitbalans. In short: whether you are looking for a job or an employer, the regional labor market is becoming increasingly important.
No moving and no traffic jams
The distance we travel to and from work has not decreased but increased in recent decades. We traveled an average of about 15 kilometers per day between home and work in 1985, which was already 22 km in 2008. As long as transport and travel time are constant and reliable, employees do not want to move, says Esmeralda de Vries , Labor Market Watcher and Organizational Sociologist. Employees only move once every 7-10 years. Work in the area is therefore very attractive. These are pre-eminently the positions that lower-educated people often work in, where working from home appears to be an exception rather than a rule. Parents also have to deal with the fact that they are bound to fixed times, because the child(ren) must be picked up from daycare on time. You don’t want to give the parents a living who are regularly stuck in traffic jams, thinking about the chance that they will be late. And with all of the above, we haven’t even mentioned the benefits that shorter commutes have on our environment. In short: plenty of reasons to look for a job – or employee – in the area.
About De Telefoongids BV
De Telefoongids BV presents current jobs at MBO and HBO level on GoudenGidsBanen.nl . The use of the site is free for job seekers