US Volunteering Up Amid Tough Economic Times

Americans, it seems, have answered President Obama’s call to service, as the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BSL) show a significant increase in the number of volunteers and the volunteer rate in 2009.

According to the BLS report 1.5 million more Americans volunteered between September 2008 and September 2009 than did in the previous year.

Approximately 63.4 million people, or 26.8 percent of the population, volunteered through or for an organisation in 2009 compared to 61.8 million in 2008.

Stephen Goldsmith, the Board Chair of the Corporation for National and Community Service says in this time of economic distress, the need for service and volunteering is more critical than ever before, and Americans are responding.

President Obama made service a central cause of his administration. Since calling on Americans to serve in his inaugural address, support for the Corporation’s service programs has skyrocketed – AmeriCorps applications have tripled and a record number of Americans joined together to serve on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service and the first-ever 9-11 Day of Service and Remembrance in 2009.

The Corporation leverages more than five million volunteers across the country, leads President Obama’s national service initiative, United We Serve, and oversees Serve.gov, a website that enables people to find local volunteer opportunities, share their story of service, and design and execute their own service projects.

The report is based on a survey of approximately 60,000 households collected by the U.S. Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics in partnership with the Corporation.

The data will be used to produce the annual Volunteering In America report that details volunteer trends nationally, in every state and for major metropolitan areas.

The latest BSL figures show that:

• The volunteer rate of women increased from 29.4 percent in 2008 to 30.1 percent in 2009, while the volunteer rate for men, at 23.3 percent, was essentially unchanged. As in previous years, women volunteered at a higher rate than did men across all age groups, education levels, and other major demographic characteristics.

From 2008 to 2009, those employed full time showed a large increase in their volunteer rate — from 27.8 percent to 28.7 percent.

This was led by:

• Women employed full time, with an increase of 1.4 percentage points in their volunteer rate.
• The volunteer rate among unemployed men increased from 17 to 18.2 percent, while those unemployed showed no significant change overall.
• By age group, 35-44-year olds and 45-54-year olds were the most likely to volunteer. Their volunteer rates were 31.5 percent and 30.8 percent, respectively, in 2009.

The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service each year through its core programs, Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America, and leads President Obama’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve.

For more information about the Corporation visit  www.nationalservice.gov

The full report can be viewed at: www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.nr0.htm