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By Jasmine Laws
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Across the U.S., attitudes towards remote working vary widely, with some states more likely to offer work-from-home options to employees.
For those who work in an office, commuting will be part of daily life. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average commute time is around 27 minutes in the U.S.
However, commute time is also widely varied across states.
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According to census data, New York had the highest average commute time of 33.2 minutes, and Maryland wasn't far behind with a usual commute time of around 32 minutes.
Other states with commute times above the average included Washington, California, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Virginia, and Massachusetts.
South Dakota had the shortest commute time of 17.4 minutes, and Wyoming also had a short average commute time at 18 minutes.
Researcher Arjun Ramani, who co-authored a National Bureau of Economic Research paper on working patterns post-Covid, told Newsweek that many of the states which have the longest commute times also have some of most expensive cities, including New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Baltimore, which suggests people are more likely to move further away towards the suburbs in search of cheaper housing, leading to longer commutes.
He added that overlap with remote working may also have an impact. Ramani said, "These cities also have a lot of professional services jobs that can be done from home so it's more manageable to commute a long distance if you only go to the office a few times a week."
States with shorter commute times, like North and South Dakota, Ramani said "are less dense than much of the rest of the U.S." and that real estate prices are cheaper so it is "easier for workers to live close to their place of work."
Ramani has found in his research that households across the board have moved away from the city centres towards the suburbs, which has increased commute distances but decreased the frequency at which people commute.
According to the Harvard Business Review, commuting forces more structure into a person's daily routine and allows workers to set boundaries between their work and being at home, which can reportedly reduce burnout.
The report also says that the commute also offers time for a person to feel a sense of purpose as they travel to start their day of work.
However, other studies have shown that the commute can lead to negative health impacts, like a reduction in exercise, particularly for those whose round commute trip is greater than an hour, a report by the Keck Medicine of USC said.
The same report also noted that a commute of over 90 minutes might have an adverse effect on a person's social life, if they feel they do not have enough time to socialize after work, which can lead to depression and loneliness.
Less sleep and more exposure to pollution were also listed as potential negative consequences of longer commutes.
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