‘A steep hill’ ahead for nonprofits with omicron spreading
It may take almost another year for the nation’s nonprofit sector to plug labor shortages caused by the pandemic.
Figures released this month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that U.S. nonprofits added just 9,246 jobs in December, the latest sign of trouble for the sector amid another wave of COVID-19 that’s already keeping workers at home, further boosting the price of most goods and forcing more Americans to turn to charity to put food on the table or keep a roof over their head.
The sector’s workforce remains down by 3.7 percent — the equivalent of about a half-million workers — compared to February 2020, just before the pandemic spread across the U.S.
By March 2020, national nonprofit employment had shrunk by more than 13 percent, leaving gaping holes in an industry that employs more people than the national manufacturing sector.
Nonprofit employment has remained anemic since, as many burned-out charity workers seek better salaries or benefits at for-profit companies that cash-strapped charities can’t match. That means fewer staff to meet demands for services that have remained high throughout the pandemic and ensuing recession. The need for those services has crept upward with the arrival of each new COVID variant, including omicron.
“With nearly a half-million of the sector’s pre-pandemic workers still missing from the workforce, nonprofits have a steep hill to climb as they continue their critical work,” wrote researchers at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Civil Society Studies Archive. The group, which analyzes nonprofit jobs trends, estimated that it will be 11
months until the sector has fully recovered.
At Christian Community Service Center, a Houstonbased charity that provides job training, financial help and other programs, requests for rental assistance are up 10 percent compared with 2020, and requests for utility assistance are up 20 percent, said Executive Director Michelle Shonbeck. She and others expect demands to remain high as inflation drives up the costs of goods.
Social-assistance charities added 3,781 jobs in December, putting that subcategory at about 3.4 percent below pre-pandemic staff levels.
Others have fared far worse: Arts, education and recreation nonprofits are still missing 12.5 percent of their pre-COVID workforce — they added just 109 jobs in December. Educational-service nonprofits added 2,412 people to their 1.8 million employees. That’s 5.6 percent below early 2020 levels.
Religious, grant-making and civic groups fared comparatively well, adding 2,869 jobs in December putting total, national staffing 4 percent below prepandemic levels.
At Memorial Assistance Ministries, a Houstonbased religious charity, about four of their 80 staff positions have remained open for the past few months, forcing the organization to hike starting salaries, said Matthew Cox, senior vice president of programs.
Those vacancies include an immigration attorney and a truck driver that the organization relies on to transport donations to its thrift store, which provides a significant revenue stream.
Other staff members have had to shoulder their duties at the same time that omicron has led to the closing of more businesses, and as inflation has driven up prices — both of which translate to more demand for services at the charity.
“It’s really been a burden,” Cox said Friday.
The slow growth in faithbased charities comes after a tumultuous 2021 that, according to one recent survey, prompted nearly 40 percent of pastors to “seriously” consider leaving the ministry last year. In that study, conducted by California-based religious polling firm Barna Research, many church leaders said the stress of COVID, ongoing racial conflict and the 2020 presidential election contributed to their desire to leave the field.