Travel-to-work and unemployed job seekers

A theoretical model of factors influencing the maximum time unemployed job seekers would be willing to commute to a new job is presented and tested using an ordered probit model. Significant effects are found for a range of personal and demographic characteristics, including gender, age, years of education, type of job, level of unemployment, expected wage, and location. The evidence suggests support for the spatial mismatch hypothesis and shows differing accessibility to employment opportunities for various 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