Salary, responsibilities, benefits, and company culture have long shaped whether a candidate accepts a job. Increasingly, another factor belongs on that list: the commute.
After years of exposure to remote and hybrid work, candidates may look at commuting differently. Time, traffic, fuel, vehicle expenses, and days required onsite can all affect the perceived value of an opportunity.
According to recent Monster research, 49% of U.S. workers said commuting costs or commute length have influenced them to turn down a job opportunity, while 32% said they would require at least 20% more pay to accept a job with a commute 20 minutes longer than they prefer.
Consider what that means for a candidate with a 45-minute commute each way. Five days onsite means 7.5 hours every week spent commuting—nearly another full workday.
And in Massachusetts, commute time can be particularly significant. The Massachusetts Department of Economic Research’s 2025 Barriers to Employment Report identifies geographic barriers as a significant employment challenge and describes a “spatial mismatch” between where job seekers live and where jobs are located. The report notes that long commutes, transportation limitations, and the cost of traveling to work can restrict employment opportunities and make it more difficult for employers to recruit from other areas.
Research from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation examining Greater Boston workplace patterns found that for every additional 12 minutes of commute time, employees were more likely to work from home an additional day each week.
At the same time, hybrid work remains common among Greater Boston employers. A Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce survey found that 85% of organizations surveyed were operating with a hybrid model, with three days in the office the most common arrangement.
The question for employers is no longer simply, “Is this a reasonable commute?” It may be: “Does the candidate think this opportunity is worth the commute?”
Employers May Need to Rethink the Recruiting Radius
At Franklin Professional Associates, we see these considerations play out in real recruiting conversations every day.
As a staffing and recruiting partner to employers throughout Massachusetts, we have a front-row seat to how candidates evaluate opportunities. Compensation is important, but it is rarely the only consideration.
Location, commute time, schedule, flexibility, onsite expectations, career opportunity, and company culture can all influence whether a candidate decides an opportunity is worth pursuing.
For employers, this means defining a recruiting radius shouldn’t simply be a matter of drawing a 25 or 30 mile circle around the company. Twenty-five miles in one direction can be a very different commute than 25 miles in another.
It also means employers may benefit from asking themselves some harder questions:
- Are we losing qualified candidates because of our location?
- Is our compensation competitive enough to justify the commute we are asking employees to make?
- If the position can support some flexibility, would one or two remote days significantly expand the candidate pool?
- Are we requiring five days onsite because the job truly requires it—or because that is how we have always structured the position?
- Are we comparing our opportunity only with similar jobs, or with the other employment choices candidates actually have?
Those are increasingly recruiting questions, not simply workplace-policy questions.
Hiring Managers Should Have the Commute Conversation Early
A commute should be treated as more than an address-to-address calculation.
The American Staffing Association has emphasized the importance of understanding what candidates actually want from an opportunity rather than simply determining what they may be willing to tolerate. Commute distance is one example: a candidate saying they can drive a certain distance doesn’t necessarily mean they want to make that drive every day.
Hiring Managers can improve candidate matching by asking:
- What is your preferred maximum commute?
- How many days a week are you comfortable making that commute?
- How does this commute compare with your current position?
- Would a longer commute change your compensation expectations?
- Would hybrid flexibility or another scheduling arrangement change your decision?
Being upfront about location and commute expectations early in the recruiting process can prevent candidates from reaching the final stages only to decline because they finally drove the route, calculated the cost, or considered what the commute would mean five days a week.
The goal isn’t to convince candidates to tolerate a commute they don’t want. It’s to understand what makes an opportunity sustainable for that particular person, and competitive in today’s labor market. For employers, that insight can make the difference between simply filling a position and making a hire that lasts.
