Techies chalk up £8,000 in unpaid commuting time

If IT workers valued the time they spend getting to work as highly as the time they spend in work, then their average commute would be worth over £8,000 a year, an agent claims.

The finding means the UK’s 490,000 techies are cumulatively  “missing out” on £4bn from the unpaid time it takes them to get to work annually, says Randstad Technologies.   

Although their commute for an average of 42mins (and 22 miles) each way is not dissimilar to the national average, they rank the third highest out of 15 industries for lost value.

This is due to techies being “high value” in typically “well-paid” jobs, said the agency, which found only financial and accountancy staff to be foregoing more due to having to commute.  

“Highly skilled IT workers are much sought after and often well paid, but their expertise comes with a price tag [of £8,398 a year],” reflected Randstad’s Ruth Jacobs.

“As a nation, we are embracing longer commutes to work, particularly as the hunt for cheaper property nudges workers further out into suburbia. This is particularly true of tech workers based around Old Street in London – which has seen some of the fastest appreciation in property prices”.