Payments to carpool drivers dropped by half, study finds

According to a study by the JPMorgan Chase Institute, the earnings of transport economy workers in the transportation sector – drivers for Uber, Lyft or Postmates – have dropped by 53%.

The study examined the banking data of 39 million Chase customers between 2013 and 2018. It found a 530% increase in the number of people engaged in some form of work (0.3% to 1.6% client). growth.

In terms of dollar amounts, Chase found that the monthly earnings of transportation industry workers had risen from $ 1,535 to just $ 762 in March of this year. Workers in the transportation industry were also more likely to be unemployed in the traditional sense and to derive their income from multiple platforms.

Contrary to the sharp drop in global driver payments, Chase has seen a 69% increase in rental business profits (Airbnb owners are the best example), despite almost steady growth in Chase's bank customers .

Solid evidence is behind these findings, but it should be emphasized that the statistics provided by Chase overlap perfectly with the Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicating where the density of jobs in the transport sector is highest,

Uber and Lyft objected to the key indicator of the study, namely monthly earnings, which they consider to be an irrelevant measure. "The fact that this study did not examine hourly earnings, the metric that drivers are most concerned about, led to misleading headlines," Lyft wrote to Gizmodo in a statement. "If that had been the case, the results would have shown steady gains for drivers in recent years." Similarly, Uber decried the results in an average position and attributed the decline in monthly earnings to a product of less-carpool drivers: "[I]If the share of our partners who drive only occasionally has increased over time, it goes without saying that the average monthly (or even weekly or yearly) earnings of each driver would have decrease."

It remains to be seen if the number of hours of work on these platforms is the result of an informed choice, a low pay or saturation of the market.