in the labor market when they become available, which may partly account for the high level of education of Uber’s driver-partners. Seven percent of Uber's driver-partners are veterans of the armed services, and one percent are members of the reserves. In addition, six percent of driver-partners have household members who are military veterans, three percent have household members who are active duty members of the armed services, and two percent have household members in the reserves. Based on the ACS data, five percent of taxi drivers and chauffeurs—and the same percentage of all workers—in the 20 areas BSG surveyed are veterans. Only two of the demographic characteristics that we examined registered statistically significant changes between the 2014 and 2015 surveys.12 First, the driver-partners were somewhat younger in 2015 than in 2014: 23 percent were in the 18-29 age bracket in 2015 compared with 19 percent in 2014. Second, the driver-partners were more likely to hold a post-graduate degree in 2015 (13.6 percent versus 10.6 percent in 2014). Given the large number of demographic characteristics examined, and these relatively modest differences, we interpret this as evidence that the basic demographic distribution of Ubers’ driver-partners was essentially unchanged from 2014 to 2015, despite the roughly four-fold increase in the number of driver-partners over this period. Driver Employment History The BSG survey provides retrospective information on driver-partners’ work experience that offers a picture of what they were doing prior to partnering with Uber. Around 80 percent of driver-partners reported that they were working full- or part-time hours just before they started driving on the Uber platform. Only eight percent of driver- partners in 2014 (and 10 percent in 2015) said they were unemployed just prior to partnering with Uber. This low percentage is notable given that, for the economy overall, about 25 percent of new hires came from unemployment and 70 percent came from nonemployment in 2014 and 2015.13 The large share of drivers who partnered with Uber while they had another job suggests the role that Uber plays in supplementing individuals’ income from other sources. 12 For comparability, the samples were restricted to overlapping cities in 2014 and 2015 in these comparisons. 13 These figures are based on transition rates reported by Bruce Fallick and Charles Fleischman at http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/researchdata/feds200434.html . 9