Employers
are losing billions of pounds as staff miss more hours of work struggling to
get to the office, according to new research.
Worsening
commuting problems mean the number of lost working hours has risen by a third
compared with 2002, costing the British economy an extra £2bn a year as a
result.
Employers
are set to lose more than 11 million hours each week as staff struggle with
commuting problems, claims the research by reed.co.uk.
This
is an increase of 35 per cent on the 8 million hours lost in 2002, costing the
UK economy an estimated £7.7bn, compared with £5.7bn two years ago.
Dan
Ferrandino, managing director of reed.co.uk, said the simple fact was that
commuting was getting worse, and not better.
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"No
transport system is entirely perfect, but there is only so much that employers
and employees can or should be expected to cope with,” he said. “Other
countries seem to have overcome this issue and it is time the UK joined
them."
