As 2021 came to an end, U.S. nonprofits employed 3.7 percent fewer workers than before the pandemic, according to new estimates from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Studies.
Over all, U.S. nonprofits added an estimated 9,246 jobs in December, bringing total jobs to around 12 million. In February 2020, before the pandemic began, U.S. nonprofits employed roughly 12.5 million workers.
“With nearly a half million of the sector’s pre-pandemic workers still missing from the work force, nonprofits have a steep hill to climb as they continue their critical work,” reads the report.
December’s gains were driven by hiring at social-assistance nonprofits, which added 3,781 jobs. That field is roughly 3.4 percent smaller than before the pandemic.
Religious, grant-making, and civic groups — a broad mix of organizations that includes churches and community foundations, among others — added 2,869 jobs, bringing total employment in this sector to roughly 785,480, down 4 percent from before the pandemic.
Educational-services nonprofits added 2,412 jobs in December, bringing total employment to more than 1.8 million. That’s 5.6 percent smaller than before the pandemic.
Arts, education, and recreation nonprofits added a mere 109 jobs in December, according to estimate. As it has throughout the pandemic, the field continues to be the hardest-hit for job losses among charities. As of December, these groups carried 12.5 percent fewer jobs than before the pandemic, when they employed 355,965 workers.
Health-care nonprofits shed 1,347 jobs in December. The field remains 196,105 jobs smaller than it was before the pandemic, a roughly 3 percent decline. Hopkins researchers noted three-quarters of those remaining job losses were from nursing homes and residential care facilities.
The Center for Civil Society Studies has been producing monthly updates on nonprofit employment and pandemic employment recovery since May 2020. The numbers in this report are estimates. To arrive at their figures, the authors used federal employment data to project nonprofit job losses or gains based on the proportion of nonprofit jobs within a given category.
The latest edition is the center’s final written summary report, though researchers will continue to update a data dashboard as new employment figures are released.
