Since the recession, “job loss” has been the main talking point for employment in the United States. But in a recent report, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics released an extensive dataset on employment and wages within the growing nonprofit sector, indicating its growing presence in the national economy.

Nonprofits employed 11.4 million people in the U.S. in 2012, roughly 10 percent of the private sector. Most of these jobs fall under the umbrella of healthcare and social assistance, which comprise the lionshare (68 percent) of all nonprofit employment. In Pennsylvania, 16 percent of non-government employees now work for nonprofits, about 780,000 people, placing nonprofit employment in third place behind retail trade and manufacturing.

Yet because of their nature as tax-exempt organizations, many have often neglected the role of nonprofits as job-creators. The stereotype persists that they are primarily led by volunteers.The BLS study, which considers a wide range of variables as it breaks down employment by state, represents evidence that nonprofits across the country have fared the recession blues better than nearly every other industry.