An Analysis of the Labor Market for Uber’s Driver-Partners in the United States Jonathan V. Hall and Alan B. Krueger NBER Working Paper No. 22843 November 2016 JEL No. J01 ABSTRACT Uber, the ride-sharing company launched in 2010, has grown at an exponential rate. This paper provides the first comprehensive analysis of the labor market for Uber’s driver-partners, based on both survey and administrative data. Drivers who partner with Uber appear to be attracted to the platform largely because of the flexibility it offers, the level of compensation, and the fact that earnings per hour do not vary much with the number of hours worked. Uber’s driver-partners are more similar in terms of their age and education to the general workforce than to taxi drivers and chauffeurs. Most of Uber’s driver-partners had full- or part-time employment prior to joining Uber, and many continued in those positions after starting to drive with the Uber platform, which makes the flexibility to set their own hours all the more valuable. Uber’s driver-partners also often cited the desire to smooth fluctuations in their income as a reason for partnering with Uber. Jonathan V. Hall Uber [email protected] Alan B. Krueger Industrial Relations Section Firestone Library, Room A2H Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544 and NBER [email protected]