Willingness to commute long distance among job seekers in Dalarna, Sweden: Fid-Bau Portal

Willingness to commute long distance among job seekers in Dalarna, Sweden

Cassel, Susanna Heldt / Macuchova, Zuzana / Rudholm, Niklas / Rydell, Alexis

Highlights ► This study shows willingness to commute longer than 40min to future employment in a sparsely populated Swedish region. ► Beside the socioeconomic characteristics interaction terms were included in this analysis. ► Highly educated people are more likely than those with a low level of education to travel longer to a future workplace. ► Men are more prone to long distance commutes than women. ► Old respondents with long spells of unemployment are less likely to accept long travel times to a new job than younger.

Abstract Previous studies on commuting behavior and willingness towards commuting have analyzed individuals who are active in the workforce and have largely focused on larger metropolitan regions. This paper presents results from a survey of unemployed job seekers in the county of Dalarna, Sweden and analyzes the differences in willingness towards long-distance commuting between individuals with different socio-economic situations and experiences of unemployment. The analysis is conducted through a linear probability model complemented with a logistic regression model. Conclusions are drawn on the socio-economic factors that influence the probability of an individual’s willingness to commute longer than 40min. The analysis also takes interaction between different factors into account. The study concludes that the factors influencing the willingness to commute are gender, level of education, and the presence of children in the household. Furthermore, the interactions between age and length of unemployment, age and educational level, and age and gender are shown to be significant in the willingness to commute long distances.