The cost of gas (on average $4-plus a gallon, across the nation) is forcing jobseekers to look for alternatives to costly commutes, including workplaces within walking distances and carpooling or telecommuting options, according to several news stories out this week.
 
According to Workforce Week, an e-newsletter that focuses on Human Resources issues , SnagaJob.com, a Richmond, Va.-based company,  recently found that 40 percent of the 21,000 adults it surveyed "say they will travel no more than 10 miles each way to work ... A smaller percentage wants to forgo driving altogether, including 9 percent who prefer jobs within 'walking distance.'" In an unrelated survey of 43,000 drivers, the NPD Group Inc., a New York-based organization that provides consumer research, found that 12 percent of the survey sample is now carpooling to work.

Hand in hand with cutting down on driving distances is the idea of working from home, or telecommuting. And, that's one way to save money on gas costs, according to researchers Kate Lister and Tom Harnish, who analyzed data detailing just how socially responsible corporations in America are now, at the height of the fuel crisis. The duo cited sources in a recent Workforce Week article, such as federal entities including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation, and they determined that "telework[ing] not only could reduce Persian Gulf oil imports by the U.S., but also reduce greenhouse gases by up to 67 million metric tons a year, and save as much as 7.5 trillion gallons of gasoline each year — a savings of $110 million a day."
 

--Cassandra P. Foster
cfoster@safnow.org

 

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