The research - published to coincide with the start of Work Wise UK's Commute Smart week (9-13 November) - shows that £266 million worth of working time is spent travelling to and from work every day.
Using the Labour Force Survey the TUC has calculated that workers spend on average 52.6 minutes commuting every day. Workers in London have the longest commute (74.2 minutes), followed by workers in the South East (56.4 minutes) and the East of England (56 minutes). Workers in Wales and the South West have the shortest journeys to work at 41 minutes and 44.8 minutes respectively.
The analysis finds that men working full time spend 7.6 minutes longer commuting than women working full time. Men in the South East spend an extra 13.6 minutes commuting to work compared to women - the largest gap in the UK.
Workers in well paid jobs such as managers and senior officials and professionals have the longest commute times at 68.6 minutes and 61.4 minutes respectively; while those in low paid occupations such as cleaners and labourers and retail and customer
services have the shortest commutes at 40.4 minutes and 41.4 minutes.
Employees working part time have shorter average commute times than full-time workers.
Men working full time spend just over an hour commuting compared to 42 minutes for men working part time. Women working full time spend 52.8 minutes travelling to work compared to 38.6 minutes for women working part time.
For more information, go to: www.tuc.org.uk/work_life/tuc-17223-f0.cfm