Nonprofits Add Jobs in Maryland Despite Economic Downturn

Employment in Maryland’s nonprofit sector grew 1.6 percent between 2009 and 2010, while the state’s businesses experienced a 1.1 percent job loss during the same period, according to a new Johns Hopkins report. This pattern of nonprofit job growth held true for all regions of the state, although recent growth was slightly lower than the 2.0 percent growth recorded from 2008 to 2009.

Nonprofit employment growth was especially strong in the health field between 2008 and 2010, growing 5.5 percent. But membership and social assistance organizations also added workers. In sharp contrast, employment at the state’s arts and culture organizations declined by 4.3 percent.

“For more than a decade, Maryland’s nonprofit organizations have demonstrated resilience through good and bad economic times,” said Lester M. Salamon, study author and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies. “But it is clear that the current economic climate is taking a toll on many organizations.”

“This report demonstrates what a critical role nonprofits play in our economy,” said Darryl A. Jones, president and CEO of Maryland Nonprofits. “News of nonprofit growth is good news for everyone since these organizations make a positive difference every day in communities across Maryland.”

Other key findings from the Johns Hopkins report include:

• Nonprofit organizations employed one out of every nine workers in Maryland at the end of 2010, more than all but one other Maryland industry (retail trade).
• These organizations generated 10 percent of all wages in the state, over $12.4 billion in all. These wages translated into an estimated $881 million of personal income tax revenue for Maryland’s state and local governments.
• Nonprofit employment growth during the recent 2008-2010 economic downturn was evident in every region of the state, ranging from a 2.9 percent increase in Baltimore City to a 5.0 percent increase in Western Maryland. By contrast, the for-profit sector shed jobs in every one of the state’s regions.
• The recent pattern of overall nonprofit job growth in Maryland comes on top of a robust average annual growth rate of 2.4 percent per year over the entire period between 1990 and 2007.

The full text of the Johns Hopkins report, Maryland Nonprofit Employment Update: Enduring Impact of the Recession, which includes county-by-county comparisons, is available here.

The private, nonprofit sector includes private universities, schools, hospitals, clinics, day care centers, social service providers, symphonies, museums, art galleries, theaters, environmental organizations and many others. This report is one in a series produced by the Nonprofit Economic Data Project at The Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Civil Society Studies. The data in this report cover the period through December 2010 and draw on filings submitted by employers to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation as part of the federal government’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.

The Center is part of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, within the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.