The rate of job recovery in the nonprofit sector rebounded in May after slowing significantly in April, an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies finds.

In May, the sector saw an increase of more than 63,000 jobs on a month-over-month basis, an increase of 7.9 percent of the nearly 796,000 jobs that were still lost as of April, compared with the 2.2 percent gain seen the previous month. While the number of jobs increased in all fields from April levels, rates of recovery varied by field. The largest percentage gains were seen in arts, entertainment, and recreation (11.5 percent) and education (11.4 percent, following a 5.7 percent decline in April), followed by social assistance (10.2 percent), other fields (9.8 percent), health care (4.2 percent), and religious, grantmaking, civic, and professional organizations (1.4 percent).

According to the analysis, in May the field of arts, entertainment, and recreation and that of education recovered 5.4 percent and 8.9 percent of the total jobs they lost at the beginning of the pandemic. By contrast, the field of social assistance recovered 3.7 percent of total job losses, while healthcare organizations and religious, grantmaking, civic, professional, and similar organizations saw relatively weak recoveries of 1.8 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

As of May, the nonprofit workforce remained down by more than 732,000 jobs, or 5.9 percent, from February 2020 levels. Based on average rates of job recovery from July 2020 through May 2021, the center estimates that it will take the sector another 15.8 months to reach pre-pandemic levels of employment — down from the April estimate of 17.7 months. The field of religious, grantmaking, civic, and professional organizations (14.9 months) is now expected to take the longest to recover, followed by health care (14 months); arts, entertainment, and recreation (12.6 months); educational services (8.1 months); social assistance (7.4 months); and other fields (6.6 months).