The nonprofit sector gained more than sixty-seven thousand jobs in July, a gain of nearly 10 percent of the 682,000 jobs still lost as of June, an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies finds.

The field of education continued the strong recovery seen in recent months, adding nearly thirty thousand jobs — an increase of 14.9 percent over June levels. Employment grew by more than 20 percent in religious, grantmaking, civic, professional, and similar organizations; 11.1 percent among nonprofit arts, entertainment, and recreational organizations; and 4.9 percent in the social assistance field. In addition, a revision of the June data included in the July report resulted in sizable retroactive gains for June in two nonprofit fields — education and religious, grantmaking, civic, professional associations.

The analysis also found that 62.6 percent of the 1.64 million nonprofit-sector jobs estimated to have been lost during the first three months of the pandemic were recovered as of the end of July 2021 — 40.6 percent were recovered between June and August 2020, 4.2 percent between September 2020 and February 2021, 9.6 percent between March and May, 4.2 percent in June, and 4.1 percent in July. At the same time, 4.9 percent of total nonprofits jobs as of February 2020 remained unrecovered, including 18.5 percent of jobs with arts, entertainment, and recreational organizations; 8.1 percent in educational services; 5.2 percent in social assistance; 4.8 percent among religious, grantmaking, civic, professional associations; and 3.2 percent in health care.

Based on average rates of job recovery from January through July 2021, the center estimates that it will take the sector another 12.4 months to reach pre-pandemic levels of employment. The social assistance field is expected to take the longest, at 13.6 months, followed by arts, entertainment, and recreational organizations (7.8 months), educational services (6.4 months), and religious, grantmaking, civic, professional associations (5.6 months). Nonprofit healthcare jobs have seen so little growth since January, however, that no reliable estimate could be projected.

(Photo credit: GettyImages/Drazen Zigic)