Volunteers and paid workforce

Employment

In 2003 two million Canadians were employed by non profit and voluntary organizations. One-third of those were employed by Hospitals and Universities. [13]

A Ministry of Industry report found that in 2004 paid jobs in the non profit sector were concentrated to a handful of organizations. Only 46 percent of non profit organizations employed any paid staff. Furthermore, the two percent that employed 100 or more people accounted for 71 percent of all employees in the sector.

Of the two million people employed, 65 percent were in permanent positions and 35 percent were in temporary positions. Collectively, 56 percent were full-time and 44 percent were part time positions.[15]

Again there were significant variations between the provinces in the number of paid staff in the sector.  Organizations in Ontario employed 47 percent of all staff in the sector, Quebec 29 percent, British Columbia 7 percent and all the other provinces combined (seven provinces) account for the remaining 23 percent of employment. [15]

Volunteering

According to the same report, during this period 11.8 million Canadians volunteered their time to charities and other non profit organization. They contributed two billion hours to organizations – the equivalent of a million full time jobs. [15]

Canadians volunteered most often with sports and recreation, social services, education and research, and religious organizations. Ninety-three percent of volunteers were engaged in delivering services or fundraising and campaign activities. [15]

Volunteer rates were highest among youth, where 55 percent of those aged 15 to 24 said they volunteered that year. Those most likely to volunteer were those with university degrees, those with household incomes over $100,000 (CAD) (€ 76,935) and those who attended religious services weekly. [15]

The average hours volunteered was highest among seniors, those with lover levels of household income and those who attended religious services. [15]