Nonprofit jobs rebounded in March: report
Teacher gives student hand sanitizer. lev radin / Shutterstock
The nonprofit sector recovered close to 81,000 jobs in March, the largest monthly gain since August, according to the latest analysis from the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies.
More than half of the jobs recovered last month were in educational institutions, which regained 45,685 jobs. But all parts of the sector saw gains, particularly in the fields of social assistance and the arts.
Even with these improved numbers, the sector has a long way to go to make a full recovery. The nonprofit workforce has still lost about 830,000 jobs overall since February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the United States. Nonprofit workers in the areas of arts, entertainment and recreation continue to face the steepest challenges: slightly less than one-third of jobs in those fields remain lost.
The data does show hopeful signs that the nonprofit sector will recover faster than expected. The center estimated that it would take the sector about one and a half years to return to pre-pandemic employment levels – an improvement over its previous estimate that recovery would take about two years. Nonprofits involved in education and social services are expected to make the quickest improvements, reaching full employment levels in under nine months.