A recent report stated "Based on a sample of 170 truck drivers, there is evidence to indicate that, on average, independent truck drivers earn more than company-hired truck drivers." Does this statement describe descriptive or inferential statistics?

It helps us to summarize a given data set.
It could describe the entire population or a sample from the population.
There are two types of descriptive measures: measures of central tendency and measures of variability
Central Tendency: Mean, mode, Median
Measure of Viability: Standard Deviation, Variance, Range, Interquartile range

Inferential Statistic:

It s the process of estimating population parameter with the help of a sample from the population.
A random sample from the population is used to describe the population with the help of sample statistic.

Given Scenario:

"Based on a sample of 170 truck drivers, there is evidence to indicate that, on average, independent truck drivers earn more than company-hired truck drivers."

Thus, this is an example of a inferential statistics as a sample was used to estimate the population.

Here,

Sample:

Sample of 170 truck drivers

Population:

All truck drivers.

With the help of a sample, we approximated the population, thus, this statement describe inferential statistics.