Employment in the Austrian Nonprofit Sector

This project intends to gain empirical knowledge on-the overall quantity and on main structural characteristics of employment in the Austrian nonprofit sector. Issues to be addressed include the quantity of employment and the potential of future job creation in various industries, the prevailing types of employment in the third sector (e.g. regarding atypical work), the composition of the nonprofit workforce (e.g. regarding gender, age groups, education, skill levels etc.), the overall quality of work and the work environment (e.g. regarding job satisfaction and the level of payment) etc. Apart from the gain in empirical knowledge, we will further develop the existing theoretical aspects on the employment behavior of nonprofit organizations. The information gained in this project will be of high relevance not only for the academic world, but also for political decision making, as we will provide the empirical basis for rational decisions on employment and social policy. In nonprofit research it is usually necessary to create new data bases because the existing statistics usually do not provide any information on sectoral aspects. Yet, even the creation of new data is restricted by the availability of systematic information on names and addresses of nonprofits to which surveys can be addressed. Due to these limitations, we will adopt an empirical research concept in which various forms of empirical work will be applied. First, desk research is used to shed light on the volume and structure of employment in the third sector by examining secondary data and conducting "plausible speculations". Second, systematic studies will be applied in selected industries (social services, health care and education). In some industries (social services and homes for the (frail) elderly) questionnaires will be directed to nonprofits and organizations of other institutional sectors which will allow direct comparisons of the size and the structure of employment between the sectors. Thirdly, case studies will be conducted to analyze the quality of work within 12 organizations, both nonprofit as well as for- profit and governmental enterprises. By means of an overall data analysis, the results of the empirical work will be examined in terms of the key features of the employment structure of the Austrian nonprofit sector. Furthermore, the new empirical facts will allow to discuss policy implications. It will be possible to provide a good basis for considering public policies to support nonprofits, or to evaluate the possible role the nonprofit sector might have in employment programs.