Nonprofits keeping the region healthy

A Sunday story reported that Pennsylvania has an unusually large amount of employment in the nonprofit sector of the economy:

Nonprofits now employ about one in 10 working Pennsylvanians, among the highest rates in the nation, the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies said. Philadelphia itself is almost off the charts, with one in five workers in the city employed by nonprofits at the end of 2003.

This has the advantage that many nonprofits are less susceptible to shifts in the larger economy than are most industries, making their jobs secure, but the disadvantages that they tend not to export goods or services (and thus don't really bring new money to the region) and that many of their activities are tax-exempt (lessening their contributions to the local tax base). Only time will tell whether a healthier local economy eventually lures more traditional for-profit firms as well.

(via YoungPhillyPolitics)