The Korea Herald

지나쌤

Seoulites’ daily work commute exceeds 2 hours

By Julie Kim Jackson

Published : July 17, 2017 - 14:54

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It takes the average Korean worker more than 100 minutes to commute to and from work every day, according to data from Job Korea, an internet employment site, on Monday. For Seoul residents, the average daily commute was 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Job Korea surveyed 820 men and women and found that the average worker spent 101.1 minutes commuting to and from work. Those surveyed said their commute to work takes roughly 48.1 minutes, while heading home from work takes 53 minutes.

The survey also showed that 27.7 percent of the commuters take the subway, while 20.7 take the bus. Roughly 17.1 percent said they take a combination of the bus and subway to get to and from work. Those who drive to work made up 26.3 percent of the respondents, while 3.9 percent said they walk.   

(Yonhap) (Yonhap)

For Seoul residents, the daily commute was roughly 30 minutes more than the average compared to other regions at around 134.7 minutes.

Roughly 44.4 percent of Seoul residents commute via the subway, 18.1 percent by bus and 20.1 percent by both buses and the subway. More than 80 percent of the respondents said they use public transportation for their daily commute.

Of the respondents, 48.4 percent said they typically listen to music during their commute, 43.9 percent said they surf the web for news, 21 percent listen to the radio, 20.5 percent play mobile games and 14.3 percent said they browse social media. 

A separate survey Monday also revealed that Korean employees work overtime an average of four days a week, according to data released by Saramin, another employment portal site.

Saramin surveyed 1,486 local employees. Among respondents, 78.9 percent indicated they work overtime.

The results also showed that 56.2 percent answered they worked overtime because they have a lot of work, 38.7 percent said it was because it is characteristic of their jobs and had no choice, while 30.3 percent answered they felt pressured to work late.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)