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The Census Bureau has said it expects to hire
about a half-million people nationwide to help in its all-important
counting of everybody living in the United States, something the
government has done every 10 years since 1790.
That half-million hiring target is a sizable decrease from the last
census, in 2010, when the bureau was more dependent on shoe leather
than silicon to get the work done. Instead of the 635,000 people
hired in 2010 to knock on doors to fill out questionnaires with
people who hadn’t gotten theirs to the mailbox, in 2020, for the
first time, the government is counting on people filling out their
forms online.
The half-million Census Bureau jobs are open to any U.S. citizen who
can pass a background check, is at least 18 and possesses a Social
Security number. In California, census officials project they will
fill or already have filled about 12,800 positions.
“It’s a relatively fluid number, just a projection,” said Celeste
Jimenez, assistant regional census manager based in Los Angeles.
That’s because for “enumerators,” the biggest category of census
workers, the number of people hired will depend on how many people
didn’t complete their census questionnaires promptly next year,
leading the Census Bureau to hire people who know their communities
and languages and can go out into the field and come back with
completed questionnaires from the non-responders.
This year, the Census Bureau is focused on setting up and staffing
offices across the country and checking and updating the list of
addresses used to send people reminders and instructions on filling
out the 2020 Census questionnaire online when it is released in
mid-March.
In California, where there will be 30 census offices up and down the
state, the administrative jobs mostly already filled or due to fill
soon(https://census.gov/about/regions/los-angeles/jobs/california.html)
are expected to last all the way through till the census gathering
is completed next summer, at a pay scale ranging from $18 to $51 per
hour, depending on the assignment and the location.
The next wave of hiring, for “listers” who will do the address
verification work this year, is under way. Those jobs pay from
$16.50 to $33 per hour and are expected to last only for a couple of
months, including paid training.
To apply for these positions, go tohttps://2020census.gov/en/jobs.html.
Yolanda Lazcano,recruiting coordinator for the “Los Angeles Region”
which covers the entire West Coast from California to Alaska, plus
Hawaii, Idaho and Nevada is hoping to recruit 11,000 applicants for
approximately 3,500 lister positions in California.
Next year, after mailings are sent out with instructions on the
legally required process of filling out the census questionnaires,
the biggest wave of hiring will begin: for “field staff” or
“enumerators” to do the “non-response follow-up” work that in large
part consists of knocking on doors at addresses where residents
didn’t file completed questionnaires.
These positions also will be filled through the Census Bureau
website:https://2020census.gov/en/jobs.html.
The Census Bureau hopes that having people file their questionnaires
online will yield billions of dollars in savings on the shoe leather
it’s always needed to get those questionnaires completed. It expects
at least half of the country’s more than 300 million people to take
the online option.
Nonetheless, Lazcano expects that each of California’s 30 census
offices will need about 300 enumerators.
In the past, with questionnaires submitted through snail mail, the
cost per person of gathering census data had grown to $92 in 2010,
from just $16 in 1970, as measured in constant dollars.
The ability to bridge language barriers will be invaluable, and in
fact is a requirement for some of the managerial positions the
Census Bureau still has open in California, such asthis one for a
Spanish speaker in Bakersfield(https://census.gov/about/census-careers/opportunities/positions/region-field/cfm/LARO-CFM-CA22.html)
orthis one for a Chinese-language speakerin the Contra Costa County
city of Concord: (https://census.gov/about/census-careers/opportunities/positions/region-field/cfm/LARO-CFM-CA47.html).
(The application period for those two positions closes June 14.)
The Census Bureau is touting its jobs as ideal for people just
starting their working life who need to establish a record of
reliability, for people who can use the frequently evening or
weekend hours to supplement jobs they already have, or for retirees
who would like to re-enter the workforce in a limited way.
As for the background checks, Lazcanosaid that hiring will be on a
case by case basis, so having a felony conviction, for instance,
isn’t necessarily a disqualifier.
Lazcano said bilingual census staff will be needed wherever 5% or
more of a community is believed to primarily use another language.
Payday comes every week and people using their cars will be
reimbursed. Although the jobs are in most cases temporary, the work
occasionally can lead to a career.
The state of California also is devoting millions of dollars to help
ensure that the 2020 Census includes everyone in the state. As of
early June, there are just a few state of California jobs related to
thecensus, listed here
(https://census.ca.gov/job-opportunities/).But the state will not be
hiring enumerators or listers. That’s the federal Census Bureau’s
responsibility.
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