Nonprofit Employment, Annual Wages And Establishments Increased Every Year, From 2007 through 2012, Including 2007-9 Recession

From US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly Labor Review, February 2016, "Nonprofits in America: new research data on employment, wages, and establishments" by Erik Friesenhahn, Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics, US Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Nonprofit employment, total annual wages, and the number of establishments grew steadily each year from 2007 through 2012. Over this period, nonprofit employment increased 8.5 percent, from 10.5 million jobs to 11.4 million jobs. Nonprofit employment increased every year during the 2007–12 review period, even during the 2007–09 recession. Total annual wages (not adjusted for inflation) increased from $421 billion in 2007 to $532 billion in 2012, a nominal increase of 26 percent. During this same period, the number of nonprofit establishments increased 15 percent, from 232,396 to 267,855. (See table 1.)

[table 1 omitted.]

In contrast to the steady growth that the nonprofit sector experienced, the total private sector employment, total annual wages, and the number of business establishments varied more with economic fluctuations. All three data series exhibited highly cyclical movements during the 2007–09 recession and the subsequent recovery.