Commuting: 5 charts that show which jobs have the worst commutes

Three million people commute for over two hours a day in the UK

The TUC have said that transport infrastructure is not good enough to support the number of people who need to travel (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

Millions of people are commuting more than two hours a day, according to union body the Trade Union Congress.

The TUC looked at data published by the Office of National Statistics and discovered that the number of people commuting more than two hours a day has risen by 72 per cent over the past 10 years.

That means 1.7 million people commuted more than 2 hours a day in 2004, but some 3 million did by 2014.

Of anyone in the country, Londoners are most likely to commute for more than two hours. Soaring rents and high house prices mean many Londoners are forced to move further out to afford accommodation, extending their commute.

The average commute rose by three minutes a day in the last ten years, from 52 to 55 minutes. That adds up to 11 hours and 42 minutes longer a year commuting now, compared to 10 years ago.

The number of commuters travelling for three or more hours a day has risen by 75 per cent, from 500,000 to 880,000 over the last decade.

Northerners in Yorkshire and the Humber and the West Midlands are most likely to have started commuting more than three hours a day, after the South East, where the number of people commuting for more than three hours rose by 91 per cent.

A long commute has been proven to reduce life satisfaction. While bankers are probably compensated for their long commutes, public sector workers are less likely to be.

Soaring unemployment after 2008 may mean that many now feel they have no choice but to put up with the long commute in order to keep their jobs.

The fact that all of us are commuting for longer than we were ten years ago suggests that transport infrastructure is not good enough to support the number of workers who need to travel, the TUC said.

Frances O’Grady, TUC General Secretary, said that employers should introduce more flexi-working and working from home so that employers can cut commuting times, save money and reduce pressure on transport.