Assets and Employment in the Nonprofit Sector

Abstract

Employment in the public sector cannot be understood apart from employment in the part of the private nonprofit sector that provides collective-type goods. The nonprofit sector exists in signifticant part because of governmental decisions that encourage this alternative to increased direct governmental provision. Estimates developed in this article suggest that employment in the nonprofit sector in the United States is between 8 and 10 million, compared with some 15 million for tatal federal, state, and local employment, and less than 3 million for the federal government alone. In other countries the forms of institutions may differ and the term nonprofit may not be used, but private nonmarket organizations do exist, and they are more important than is commonly realized In any country, recognition of the relationship between the government and nonprofit sectors highlights the choice that exists for consumer citizens; they are not limited to government as the only institutional mechanism through which to obtain collective-type goods. Some evidence suggests that reliance on the nonprofit sector is growing.