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[MaryG]

Do you think the high and still rising gas prices will affect people's approach to job hunting? I'm wondering if it will make people less likely to look for jobs beyond their current living area. I also wonder whether companies are going to be less willing to fly candidates out to interview for jobs because the airfare costs reflect the high fuel costs.

[Lisette]

Interesting.  Potentially even more relevant is whether the communting costs will reduce the distance people are willing to travel to work?  Namely, they look for jobs which are only a short drive away?

[Chevy]

Both of you bring up good questions. It would be great if it made for some positive change in encouraging commuters to do more carpooling than they already do. Especially in places where there is little reliable public transportation.

[Greg]

I think candidates will take into account the number of miles it takes to go to work  when they are looking for a job.  Who knows when the gas prices will go down.  For all we know, the prices will continue to rise.  The rise in gas prices will take a bite out of your take home pay check.  When you start doing the math, you begin to realize your working for less and less money, since it is going into gas. The sad thing is, the increase in gas prices trickles down to other services that rely on gas as well.  Its an endless cycle that does not seem to be ending any time soon. 

[MaryG]

Greg makes another good point that I hadn't thought too much about when I first posed the questions. For those of us who travel for work (not just the commute, but for the work) the cost effectiveness of that type of a job is becoming less and less. Many places aren't reimbursing at cost efficient rates for mileage. I know that in some of the work I've done in the past the mileage rate was locked in by the state government and couldn't be changed for a few months. It got to the point where I was thinking about setting up a separate bank account into which I could deposit mileage reimbursement directly and use that account for gas.