January 31, 2010

Counting on workers: Census Bureau recruits for thousands of local temporary jobs

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JEAN PARIETTI

Cynthia White fields a call at the Seattle Census office, where a chart tracks the progress toward gathering a sufficient applicant pool. The office expects to field 800 to 1,000 job inquiries a day.

It’s a once-in-a-decade job opportunity: Help your community and earn some money by working as a census taker for a few weeks this spring.

In the Puget Sound region, the U.S. Census Bureau is hiring about 4,000 temporary workers to help complete the 2010 census, says Michaellyn Garcia, recruiting coordinator for the Seattle Regional Census Center.

Record unemployment levels have created high interest in census-taker positions, also known as enumerators, Garcia says. “In general, we are seeing a lot more experience in our applicant pool,” she says.

Candidates come from all walks of life. “It’s a mix of people looking for additional income (and) people who want to help their communities and be part of this monumental effort,” Garcia says. “That is what we see in every census.”

The jobs pay $17.50 an hour in the greater Seattle-Tacoma-Everett area. Most census-taker jobs will last from two to eight weeks, says Ralph Lee, director of the Census Bureau’s Seattle region.

Sounds good, but just what does a census taker do?

“For the bulk of the people that we’ll be hiring, they’re following up on households that have not returned their census forms,” Lee says. That means they go door-to-door to collect the population information, which is vital in determining how federal funds are allocated and how many seats the state gets in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Anne Marie Watson, assistant manager for administration at the Seattle Census office, helped train and supervise census takers for the 2000 census. She says most of them enjoyed the work. “They said, ‘I feel part of the American experience. It’s part of my duty. I couldn’t be in the Army, but I can do this,’ ” Watson says.

To be eligible for census-taker jobs, applicants must be at least 18; pass a background check; read, write and speak English; pass a written test of basic reading comprehension, basic math and some map-reading skills; have access to a vehicle for most jobs (mileage reimbursement is provided); and be able to work evenings and weekends.

Bilingual candidates are encouraged to apply. U.S. citizens receive hiring preference, but if a specific language skill is needed and no citizens are available, legal non-citizens may be hired. Veterans also receive hiring preference.

Ideally, census takers work in the communities where they live. “We recruit everywhere, because we need people from every community,” Garcia says. Census takers work independently from home, reporting regularly to a crew chief. Workloads can vary from 20 to 40 hours per week.

Applicants should start by calling the toll-free number 866-861-2010, which directs them by ZIP code to the closest Census Bureau office. Callers receive application instructions and are scheduled for the skills test. “People are welcome to take the test as often as they want to improve their score,” Garcia says.

The bulk of the hiring is slated for late February, followed by a week of paid training in March before fieldwork begins in April. For more information, visit 2010.census.gov.

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3 Comments

Penny on February 2, 2010 10:58 AM | Reply

Census jobs are a joke if you are a registered republican. The idea of hiring people in different phases is all a scheme to say X amounts of jobs have been created. Those who have worked on past phases of the 2010 census are finding it extremely difficult to get a position now. All this time, "recruiters" have been testing people and those new people who haven't worked will be given jobs. Also, the best qualified people are not the ones getting jobs--its 75 year old men who score 18 or less on the test (perfect score is 28) plus thier 10 pt preference are the ones who get the jobs. If you don't have preference points for race or a veteran you aren't going to get hired. I know---I had a management job last year and performed very well...now
i can't even get hired as a clerk.

Constance on February 2, 2010 3:12 PM | Reply

Jean,

I am trying to reach you and having no luck. I have very interesting historical information about the census in Seattle if you are interested in a follow-up article. Please email me.

Janet on April 12, 2010 4:07 PM | Reply

What are you talking about? My good friend (young woman) was just hired because she had a high score on her test.

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