The covid-19 pandemic may have boosted the use of telework, but one out of two jobs in Luxembourg cannot be done from home, not to mention the workers who work in hybrid mode, combining telework and face-to-face work. In short, commuting is far from being a thing of the past for many employees, as shown by Statec in a study released on Friday and full of lessons.
1. Covid has reduced commuting time a bit
For half of the residents, it takes 25 minutes or less to get to work: a travel time that was reduced by 10 minutes in the second quarter of 2020, but which increased somewhat in the third quarter, to 20 minutes.
2. The pandemic has not changed mobility habits
The car is still widely used by 6 out of 10 residents. Public transport is used three times less often, while a third of resident employees walk to work.
3. Free public transport is not attractive
Statec sees a decline in public transport use in the second half of 2020, especially among occasional users. "The expected positive effect of the introduction of free transport did not materialise in either the second or third quarter," the statistics institute concludes.
4. Car faster than public transport
According to Statec, half of all resident car users reach their workplace in 20 minutes or less. Public transport users and pedestrians, on the other hand, have a journey time of around 25 minutes.
5. Belgian and German residents faster to get to the office
With a median travel time of 20 minutes, residents of Belgian and German nationality are statistically the fastest to reach their workplace, ahead of Luxembourgers and French (25 minutes) and Portuguese (30 minutes).
6. Living in the city shortens commutes
While in Europe workers living in urban areas have longer commuting times, Luxembourg is an exception, with an average commute of 20 minutes for half of the workers in urban areas, compared to 30 minutes for those from sparsely populated areas. The phenomenon can be explained by the fact that 35% of the country's employers are based in the capital.
7. Statistically longer commutes
In a European comparison, Luxembourg residents take longer to get to their workplace: 55% take less than 30 minutes, compared to 67% in the eurozone. Only Latvia has even longer commuting times, with 48% of workers taking less than half an hour to reach their workplace.
8. Mobility weighs on satisfaction
Unsurprisingly, the longer the commute, the lower employee satisfaction. 90% of workers with a commute of less than 10 minutes say they are satisfied with their work, while only 74% are satisfied with a commute of more than 50 minutes. As a result, the share of employees looking for another job is higher among those with the longest commute times.
9. Flexible working hours save time
Workers who can choose their work hours take 20 minutes to get to work, compared with 25 minutes for those who do not have this freedom.
This article was originally published in French on Paperjam.lu. It has been translated and edited for Delano.