The table below is from a research paper by Katharine Abraham and John Haltiwanger of the University of Maryland, and Kristin Sandusky and James Spletzer of the Census Bureau.

These researchers attached demographic characteristics to the nonemployer data and information on whether nonemployers had wage and salary earnings in addition to their self-employment earnings.

They also identified persons who were self-employed taxi drivers in both 2012 and 2013, which they define as incumbents, and newcomers to the taxi-driving industry in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

“We see large differences in who was an incumbent and self-employed taxi driver in 2013 versus who is entering the industry in the past several years,” Spletzer said. “The incumbents in 2013 were mostly male and foreign-born, and only 18 percent had a wage and salary job in the same year.”

Those who are newer to the industry have very different characteristics.

“In contrast to the 2013 incumbents, those new to the industry in 2015 were more likely to be female, less likely to be foreign-born, and 73 percent had a wage and salary job in the same year,” Spletzer said.