Back to Resources

50% of all jobs are rejected due to location, not low pay

February 27, 2019
6
min read
By
Cooper Newby
Employers

Bluecrew aggregates valuable worker feedback on a variety of jobs through its on demand platform and mobile app. Combining passive data on the reasons worker’s decide to accept certain jobs and refuse others, paired with worker survey results and job ratings, Bluecrew has developed a list of factors that impact worker’s decision to work.

This decision process includes location, pay, length of the assignment, the type of assignment and the specific company making the offer.

Bluecrew analyzed over 10,000 individual responses to temporary job offers in identifying these patterns. The Bluecrew on demand platform uses algorithms that factor in a worker’s experience, expertise and employer performance ratings to select the ideal candidates for specific employer assignments. An interesting point is that worker responses recorded in a survey didn't directly match up to worker job accept patterns in reality. (People say they want high paying jobs but lean towards accepting lower paying jobs if the commute is shorter)

Location

The single most influential factor for job attractiveness was job location. Employees are very attuned to how much they will spend on gas and travel. If public transportation is not convenient near your job location, essentially your available workforce is halved! Bridges in the Bay Area also take a toll (no pun intended). A $5 toll + gas money can often negate a full hour of work.

Shift Time & Length

We found very early on that shifts 3 hours and under were very unattractive to the workforce unless the hourly wage was well above the platform average. Weighing the travel time and inconvenience of a 2 hour shift decreases job attractiveness significantly.

Type of Work

We found popular consumer brands have an inherent advantage over other jobs. Very popular companies can get away with lower average wages because people seem to be familiar with the brand and enjoy telling people they work on products or experiences that their friends enjoy.

Wage

While wage is not the most important attribute of a job, it can be a huge differentiator between jobs in the same area (like a tie breaker).

We see the greatest example of wage impact in Oakland. The minimum wage in Oakland is $12.55. In a sea of $12.55/hr jobs, a $13/hr psychologically has a very strong impact on people and really incentivizes top workers to accept jobs. Above is an example of an Oakland warehouse client bumping their wage $0.75 and resulting in a vast improvement in the distribution of highly rated workers on their job site.

You might also like:

Want the simplest, fastest way to scale your hourly workforce?

Bluecrew puts the power to see, hire, and manage pre-screened W-2 workers at your fingertips.

Start hiring

Looking for a job that has it all?

We’ll match you with jobs that have top pay and great benefits. You pick work that fits your schedule.

Start working
Bluecrew's platform and mobile app let clients to post jobs and see rosters of temp workers at any time