Nonprofit organizations: state and regional employment trends

This article explores employment trends and highlights of 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations at the state and regional levels. The article also examines the role of the public and private sectors in key industries and their effect on state and regional trends. Nonprofit organizations can be found in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Despite this broad geographical representation, it was not until recently that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began to publish data on employment, wages, and the number and size of establishments for this vibrant segment of the U.S. economy. Published estimates are now available covering the period from 2007 to 2022.1 Using publicly available data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), BLS was able to identify private-sector nonprofit companies on its business register. BLS linked the IRS’s Exempt Organization Business Master File to the BLS Business Register, by using a variable common to both datasets.