Deficit reduction efforts affect Washington nonprofit jobs
The deficit reduction talks in Washington are having an impact on Washington nonprofit jobs, according to a recent article.
The deficit reduction talks in Washington have introduced a great deal of uncertainty into planning by nonprofit organizations in the Washington, DC metro area, according to Principor Communications, a public relations consultancy that represents nonprofits based in Virginia, Maryland and other states.
The bottom line: Spending and hiring decisions have been put on hold, adding a further break on economic growth and negatively impacting job creation.
A great deal of attention has been focused on the effect defense and related cuts will have on the Washington region’s economy. But the nonprofit sector is also a large employer in the area, particularly of the recent college graduates who have moved to Washington in large numbers over the past decade, helping revitalize neighborhoods and generate tax revenues.
A 2009 report from the Congressional Research Service outlined the nonprofit sector’s large and growing role in the US economy:
Over 1.5 million nonprofits are registered in the U.S., nearly 64 percent of them public charities, nearly 8 percent private foundations, and 29 percent other types of nonprofits.
In 2005, the nonprofit sector overall employed 12.9 million people, or 10 percent of the workforce.
From 1998 to 2005, nonprofit employment overall grew 16.4 percent, compared to 6.2 percent for overall employment in the U.S.
Based on employment, the charitable sector is larger than the construction sector and larger than the finance, insurance and real-estate sectors combined, and it has nearly half as many employees as federal, state and local government combined.
In 2008, a broad category of nonprofits known as “nonprofit institutions serving households,” a subset of the overall nonprofit sector, generated 5.2 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP, representing $751.2 billion worth of output.
Nonprofits’ share of GDP grew 0.4 percentage points from 1998 to 2008.
“Like so many other organizations in the Washington metro area, nonprofits depend a great deal on federal spending decisions,” said John Jordan, President of Principor Communications. “Until those federal spending decisions have been made, and nonprofits know what to expect in the medium- to long-term, they’re largely in a holding pattern. That means people aren’t being hired and capital and other expenditures are not being made. It’s another factor that could tip the Washington region into the stagnation experienced in other parts of the country.”
Principor Communications has designed and implemented communications campaigns for International Relief & Development, Disability Management Employer Coalition, Insurance Educational Association, IMA World Health, Miriam’s Kitchen and other nonprofit organizations.
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