Nonprofit Job Growth Was Flat in January

Nonprofit job growth was sluggish in January, adding only 5,158 jobs since December, according to a new analysis from the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies.

The slight month-to-month job gains were driven by hiring among educational services nonprofits, which added an estimated 24,000 jobs in January.

Other types of nonprofits saw month-over-month job losses. Health-care organizations shed 12,858 jobs in January. Slightly more than 4,600 jobs were lost among social-assistance nonprofits last month, and 3,600 jobs were lost at arts, entertainment, and recreation groups.

As of January, nonprofits employed roughly 958,000 fewer workers than they did in February 2020, a decline of 7.7 percent.

Nonprofits have recovered an average of 40,640 per month since June. At that rate, it would take nearly two years for nonprofit employment to rebound to pre-pandemic levels.

Arts and entertainment nonprofits continue to see the steepest job losses since February 2020, with 36 percent fewer workers as of January. Educational services groups have shed an estimated 16 percent since February 2020, while nonprofit religious and grant-making employment is down 11 percent.

The report is part of an ongoing effort to track the pandemic’s effect on the nonprofit work force. To arrive at its estimates, Hopkins researchers assume nonprofit job losses were proportional to the share of nonprofit jobs in each industry.