7.2% of American workers are in the nonprofit sector. And, according to new figures, the nonprofit part of the job market is growing faster than the overall job market.

Why are so many people flocking what are usually underpaid difficult jobs?

It could be, as Lester Salomon, author of the new study, suggests, that this is part of a larger movement toward a service economy. But that answer leaves me a bit cold. It seems that with the addition of more workers each year several things must be happening in some combination:

1) Existing nonprofits are growing and hiring more staff.

2) New nonprofits are starting and attracting sufficient resources to hire staff.

3) Activities that might have been performed by government or the private sector are devolving to nonprofits.

The first two are hopeful, healthy trends; the third is a bit more troubling. But the overall message is that the sector is vibrant, expanding, and looking to involve new people. Way to go!

Tags: nonprofit

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 28th, 2007 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Nonprofit Sector. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.