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If you want a nonprofit job, think about moving to Maryland. The Maryland nonprofit sector created more than 50,000 new jobs between 1998 and 2006. Nonprofit employees account for 9.5 percent of the state's employment force and 20 percent of the state's overall job growth, according to a new report, which uses the latest data from 2006.

The nonprofit growth isn't a surprise to Nancy Hall, senior advisor at the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations in Baltimore. "We've seen the trends. What it does is really help us make the case of what a strong economic engine nonprofits really are," said Hall.

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Hall said several trends across the state contributed to the nonprofit growth, including a surge of charter schools that Hall called "letting a genie out of a bottle," which by Maryland legislation the schools must be run by a nonprofit.

The growth could also be credited to increased money spent on health services, since a majority of the hospitals are nonprofits, according to Hall. "The real growth is coming from larger organizations. The big are getting bigger," said Hall.

More than 243,000 nonprofit employees in more than 25,000 nonprofits worked in the state during 2006. The payroll for these employees banked in at more than $10.5 billion.

Nonprofits By the Numbers 2008: Analysis of Maryland's Nonprofit Sector is a part of The John Hopkins University's Nonprofit Economic Data Project.

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