US / Nonprofit Sector is Growing Faster than Rest of the Economy

The nonprofit sector’s growth in total wages and employees outpaced government and business between 2000 and 2010, The Nonprofit Almanac 2012 shows. The volume was published this week by the Urban Institute Press.

Even during and after the recession, from 2007 to 2010, nonprofit employment grew 4 percent and wages increased 6.5 percent, while they decreased in the business sector by 8.4 and 8 percent, respectively, and increased only 1 and 4.8 percent, respectively, for government.

Nonprofits paid $587.7 billion in wages and employed 13.7 million people (9 percent of the country’s labor force) in 2010.

Nonprofit organizations did not escape the recession unscathed. Private giving was down 11 percent from 2007 to 2010. While corporate giving dropped 13 percent between 2007 and 2008, by 2010 it had surpassed pre-recession levels.

However, in 8 of the past 10 years, the nonprofit sector spent more than it earned. The gap between revenues and outlays was $65 billion in 2008, 2009, and 2010.

“The growth trends should not mask the cutbacks and hardships that nonprofits, especially small ones, have experienced these past few years. Some closed their doors during the recession; others cut staff, wages, or activities to stay afloat. Still, the nonprofit sector continues to show its resilience and has become a larger part of the U.S. economy since 2008,” says Thomas Pollak, director of the Institute’s National Center for Charitable Statistics.

The Nonprofit Almanac 2012, by Katie Roeger, Amy Blackwood, and Sarah Pettijohn, explores the sector in detail, particularly its role in the economy. Chapters 1-4 offer data on wage and employment trends, financial trends, and giving and volunteering between 2000 and 2010 (for which the latest complete data are available). Chapter 5 focuses on the size, scope, and finances of 501 (c)(3) public charities and is summarized in “The Nonprofit Sector in Brief: Public Charities, Giving, and Volunteering, 2012.”

via Nonprofit Sector is Growing Faster than Rest of the Economy.