Germany: work travel distances have greatly increased (DGB Study)

In February, the German Confederation of Trade Unions published a key study on German worker mobility using data supplied by the Federal Statistics Agency, the main result of which is that travelling to work is more frequent and workers are travelling further distances to arrive at their place of work. The study spanned ten years between 2004 and 2014 and during this time the number of ‘long distance travellers’ (in excess of 150km) has risen by 29.7%. Outside of the Ruhr region, which is still undergoing major structural change, the trend towards longer travel distances is strong throughout the country.
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Long distance work commuting up by 29.7% over the period 2004-2014. Recent rises in working time flexibility as well as a healthy German economy are coinciding with an increase in German worker mobility as shown by the study, ‘Mobility in the world of work’ that the DGB produced, using the most recent official data available (Destatis-2014). Overall, 17% of all active German workers travel more than twenty-five kilometers a day to get to work. With an active labor force population of 42,6 milli

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