Having a job is great, if you can get there.

A recent University of Minnesota study found a “serious disconnect” between unemployed workers and job vacancies in the seven-county Twin Cities area. The culprit? The lack of a dependable car, for one, but also the need for a public transportation system that’s reliable and convenient.

As a result, disadvantaged workers who live in urban areas often have no way to reach employment centers in suburbia, the study concludes. And employers hungry for qualified workers can’t seem to attract and keep them.

Andrew Guthrie, a doctoral student at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, said U researchers embarked on the study because they wanted “to address the fact that disadvantaged workers often end up between a rock and a hard place. They might be qualified for a variety of entry-level jobs, often in suburban areas. But if they don’t have a car, or their household doesn’t have a second car, or a reliable late-model car, they can’t physically reach these jobs.”<