The employment growth rate in Maryland's nonprofit
sector is continuing to outpace the for-profit sector's, a
Johns Hopkins University study concludes.
"Our data show that this general trend has continued
for the past decade with the nonprofit job growth rate
equaling or exceeding that of the for-profit sector in
eight of the past 10 years," said Lester Salamon, director
of the Center for Civil Society
Studies within the university's
Institute for Policy Studies and a leading expert on
nonprofits.
Statewide, nonprofit employment grew 2 percent between
2003 and 2004, compared to 1.8 percent for the state's
for-profit businesses. Between 1995 and 2004, nonprofit
employment growth exceeded for-profit growth 27 percent to
16 percent. Maryland nonprofit organizations added more
than 4,500 jobs during 2004, the latest year for which data
are available. Growth was particularly robust in the
Baltimore suburbs, where nonprofit employment grew 4.8
percent. This suggests a continued suburbanization of
nonprofit jobs in Maryland, a trend also evident in other
states.
Peter V. Berns, executive director of the Maryland
Association of Nonprofit Organizations, said, "This report
demonstrates that Maryland's nonprofit sector continues to
play a more significant role in the economy of the state
than is the case in most states. Nonprofits account for 11
percent of private sector employment in Maryland, well
above the national average of 8.2 percent," he said, noting
"the important role nonprofits play in providing programs
and services that are vital to our quality of life."
The study also found the following:
In addition to the high growth
rate in the Baltimore
suburbs, nonprofit employment increased in all regions of
the state, with a growth rate of 3.1 percent on the Eastern
Shore, 2 percent in western Maryland and 1 percent in both
the Washington suburbs and Baltimore City.
While the nonprofit job growth
rate in Baltimore City
was lower than the state average, it still outpaced
employment in the city's for-profit sector, which declined
by nearly 4 percent.
Recent nonprofit job growth in
Maryland was especially
robust in professional and scientific services (4.8
percent); the arts, entertainment and recreation (4.5
percent); educational services (3.6 percent); and social
assistance (3.6 percent).
While nonprofit job growth in
the hospital field, at
1.7 percent, was below the state average, nonprofit
hospitals still added nearly 1,500 new jobs.
At the end of 2004, Maryland's
nonprofit sector
accounted for 232,536 jobs. This represents more than 9
percent of all jobs in the state and 11 percent of all
private jobs.
In 2004, Maryland's nonprofit
organizations paid $9.5
billion in wages, which generated an estimated $432 million
of personal income-tax revenue for Maryland's state and
local governments and approximately $1.8 billion in federal
tax revenues.
The private nonprofit sector comprises private
universities, schools, hospitals, clinics, day care
centers, social service providers, symphonies, museums, art
galleries, theaters, environmental organizations and many
others. The report is part of the Nonprofit Employment Data
Project at Johns Hopkins, which seeks to quantify the size
and scope of nonprofit employment in states throughout the
United States. The data in this report draw on reports
filed by employers with the Maryland Department of Labor,
Licensing and Regulation and cover the period through the
end of 2004.
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To view the entire report, including a county-by-county
breakdown of nonprofit employment, go to www.jhu.edu/ccss.
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