Nonprofit organizations accounted for 12.8 million U.S. jobs in 2022, equal to 9.9% of private-sector employment. Community and social service occupations formed a related workforce of 2,418,130 people in May 2023, with a median annual wage of $52,000 at that time. Together, these measures show both the broad economic reach of nonprofits and the labor-market scale of jobs directly focused on community support.
Contents
- The scale of nonprofit employment
- Community-serving industries
- Regional and state differences
- Employment and wages in community and social service work
- Projected growth through 2033
- What the 2022–2032 outlook showed
The scale of nonprofit employment
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported more than 300,000 nonprofit establishments and 12.8 million nonprofit jobs in 2022. Nonprofit establishments represented 9.9% of all private-sector jobs in that year. These figures describe nonprofit employment across the economy, so they include health care, education, social assistance, arts, and other services rather than only organizations whose names contain “community” or “social service.” Nonprofit Sector Research Data, 2022.
The longer-term pattern includes a sharp pandemic-era disruption. Nonprofit employment fell 4.5% between 2019 and 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began. By 2022, employment had recovered substantially but remained 1.4% below its 2019 level. The comparison is important because a 2022 total near the pre-pandemic level does not mean that the sector had fully returned to its earlier employment base. Nonprofit Sector Research Data, 2019–2020 and 2019–2022.
Health care and social assistance dominated the nonprofit total in 2022, accounting for 66.3% of nonprofit jobs. Educational services contributed another 16.4%. Other services accounted for 6.3%, while arts, entertainment, and recreation represented 2.6%. These shares indicate that nonprofit employment is concentrated in services that deliver care, education, assistance, and cultural activity.
| Nonprofit industry grouping | Share of nonprofit jobs, 2022 |
|---|---|
| Health care and social assistance | 66.3% |
| Educational services | 16.4% |
| Other services | 6.3% |
| Arts, entertainment, and recreation | 2.6% |
Source: Nonprofit Sector Research Data, 2022. The listed categories do not sum to the entire nonprofit total because the source includes additional industry groupings.
Community-serving industries
More detailed 2017 BLS data show how many nonprofit jobs were located in major community-serving industries. Nonprofit health care and social assistance establishments employed 8,306,650 people. Within social assistance, employment totaled 1,528,920, and individual and family services made up 66% of that social-assistance employment, or 829,592 jobs. Nonprofits: a look at national trends in establishment size and employment, 2017.
Nonprofit hospitals employed 4,206,754 people in 2017. This hospital workforce was a major component of nonprofit health care, but the broader health care and social assistance figure also included social assistance and other health-related activities. The figures therefore should be read as related categories from the same 2017 industry picture, not added together without accounting for overlap in the way the source defines industries.
Nonprofit educational services employed 2,003,634 people in 2017. Colleges, universities, and professional schools accounted for 1,137,681 of those jobs, while nonprofit elementary and secondary schools employed 684,170. Education therefore formed a substantial nonprofit employment base alongside health care and social assistance.
Other community-connected nonprofit activities also supported sizable workforces. Religious, grantmaking, civic, professional, and similar nonprofit organizations employed 818,562 people in 2017. Nonprofit museums, historical sites, and similar institutions employed 141,289. These categories cover organizational, civic, cultural, and public-facing work that may be smaller than nonprofit health care or education but remains part of the community employment landscape.
The 2017 detail and the 2022 national total answer different questions. The 2017 figures identify employment within specific nonprofit industries, while the 2022 figures describe the later overall nonprofit establishment and job count. Measurement years and category definitions should remain explicit when comparing them.
Regional and state differences
Nonprofit employment was not distributed evenly across the United States in 2022. Nonprofit jobs represented 15.5% of total private-sector employment in the Northeast, compared with 7.6% in the South. The national nonprofit share was 9.9%. Nonprofit organizations: state and regional employment trends, 2022.
| Geography | Nonprofit share of private-sector employment, 2022 |
|---|---|
| Northeast | 15.5% |
| United States | 9.9% |
| South | 7.6% |
Source: Nonprofit organizations: state and regional employment trends, 2022.
The state-level figures show an even wider range. The District of Columbia had the highest nonprofit share listed, at 25.2% of private-sector employment. Vermont’s share was 19.8%, and Massachusetts recorded 17.6%. At the lower end of the supplied state figures, Nevada’s nonprofit employment share was 2.8%. These percentages measure nonprofit jobs as a share of each location’s private-sector employment, not the number of nonprofit jobs in absolute terms.
Other locations in the source also had comparatively high nonprofit shares. Alaska’s nonprofit employment share was 14.6%, while West Virginia’s was 15.2%. The contrast between the District of Columbia’s 25.2% and Nevada’s 2.8% illustrates why a national average can conceal substantial geographic variation.
Regional differences may reflect the mix of industries and institutions represented in local private-sector employment, but the supplied figures do not establish causes. They support a narrower conclusion: nonprofit employment had different relative importance across regions and states in 2022.
Employment and wages in community and social service work
The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release for May 2023 counted 2,418,130 jobs in the community and social service occupational group. The group’s mean annual wage was $58,980, and its median annual wage was $52,000. The 10th-percentile annual wage was $35,570, while the 90th-percentile annual wage was $89,220. Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2023: Community and Social Service Occupations, May 2023.
The percentile figures describe the distribution of wages within the occupational group. In May 2023, the 10th-percentile wage was the lower reference point supplied here, and the 90th-percentile wage was the upper reference point. The mean was higher than the median, which indicates that higher wages among some occupations affected the arithmetic average. These measures are not interchangeable: the mean is an average, while the median identifies the midpoint of the wage distribution.
The Occupational Outlook Handbook reported a May 2024 median annual wage of $57,530 for community and social service occupations. The May 2024 median was higher than the $49,500 median for all occupations. Because the May 2024 figure comes from a different BLS publication and measurement year than the May 2023 occupational wage table, it should be treated as a later reference point rather than a direct replacement for every May 2023 measure. Occupational Outlook Handbook: Community and Social Service Occupations, May 2024.
Selected occupations illustrate the range of 2024 median wages. Community health workers had a median annual wage of $51,030. Health education specialists had a median of $63,000, while marriage and family therapists had a median of $63,780. These are occupation-specific medians, so they should not be interpreted as the wage for every nonprofit or community organization.
Projected growth through 2033
The BLS occupational projections for 2023–2033 estimate that community and social service employment will rise from 3.2701 million jobs in 2023 to 3.5130 million in 2033. That represents 242,900 additional jobs and a projected growth rate of 7.4%. The same projection period includes 293,400 annual openings for community and social service occupations. Occupational projections and worker characteristics, 2023–2033.
Annual openings are not the same as net new jobs. The supplied projection gives both a net increase of 242,900 jobs and 293,400 annual openings, so the opening figure includes the broader number of opportunities expected during the period, while the net increase describes the change in employment level between 2023 and 2033.
Within the group, counselors, social workers, and other community and social service specialists are projected to grow 8.3%. Counselor employment is projected to grow 10.9%. Marriage and family therapist employment is projected to grow 13.5%, and substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselor employment is projected to grow 18.4%.
Several social work and support occupations also show projected increases. Child, family, and school social worker employment is projected to grow 4.4%; healthcare social worker employment, 8.5%; and mental health and substance abuse social worker employment, 10.3%. Social and human service assistant employment is projected to grow 7.4%, while community health worker employment is projected to grow 12.7%. These are estimates for 2023–2033, not counts of positions already created.
What the 2022–2032 outlook showed
An earlier BLS outlook projected 7.8% growth for the community and social service occupational group from 2022 to 2032. In that outlook, substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors were projected to grow 18.4%. Marriage and family therapists were projected to grow 14.9%, and community health workers were projected to grow 14.1%. Projected employment growth for community and social service occupations, 2022–32, 2022–2032.
The earlier outlook also projected 9.6% growth for healthcare social workers, 8.6% for social and human service assistants, and 10.6% for mental health and substance abuse social workers. Health education specialists were projected to grow 7.2%. Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors were projected to grow 5.4%, while child, family, and school social workers were projected to grow 5.3%.
The 2022–2032 and 2023–2033 projections are separate outlook periods. Their percentages should not be presented as a single continuous forecast. They are useful for seeing how BLS estimates described demand for community-focused occupations at different projection points, while the later 2023–2033 table supplies the more recent period among the two.