Dive Brief:

• Hourly job seekers are more likely to reject job offers because of a long commute rather than pay, according to new data from BlueCrew, an on-demand staffing platform for flexible W-2 work. Based on analysis of 10,000 rejected job offers on BlueCrew’s platform, the data indicated that 38% of hourly jobs offered were rejected because of an employer’s location, while only 10% of job offers were rejected due to money.
• Employer location and pay were number one and number four, respectively in the top five reasons for rejecting job offers. The other reasons workers rejected jobs included: work schedule inflexibility, cited by 26% of job seekers; unacceptable job type listed by 24%; and company culture, which was cited by only 2%.
• “The access to flexibility with the gig model has shifted the paradigm for hourly workers and employers across all kinds of industries — including manufacturing, hospitality, and retail,” said Adam Roston, BlueCrew CEO, in a news release. “Our data shows that when actually deciding whether or not to take a job, workers value location, control, and flexibility above all else, which we believe reflects a broader trend of work fitting around their schedule instead of their schedule fitting around work.”

Dive Insight:

Neither workers nor companies favor long commutes. Research by the University of Notre Dame found that employers were less likely to call back applicants who lived far from the workplace than those who lived closer by 14%.   

BlueCrew’s data analyses is in line with other research which has highlighted the high demand for work flexibility among today’s job seekers. In a study by IWG, 80% of workers said they would choose to work a job with a flexible work option over one without. And as BlueCrew noted, hourly workers expect the scheduling choices associated with gig workers to be extended to them, as well. To satisfy the demand for work flexibility and avoid scheduling conflicts, Walmart developed an app that allows hourly workers more control over their work schedules and more predictable scheduling overall. 

Pay might be slipping as the top motivator for accepting or rejecting a job in a growing number of circumstances, but it’s still a deciding factor, as Roston explained: "For example, in the industrial sector where companies are struggling more than ever with hiring and retention, a worker can be easily lured by another employer with only moderately higher pay if they’re based in the same general vicinity. Many times, we’ve seen employees walk across the parking lot for a small raise."