Census Jobs Looking Good - In A Down Economy, Even The Highly Educated Happily Agree To Help Count Heads

By Glen Coin

January 31, 2010

When the U.S. Census Bureau hired about 700 workers last spring to match addresses with houses in Central and Northern New York, the bureau also scheduled four weeks of training for workers to replace those who would likely quit during the process.

"We held one week of replacement training, and then we canceled weeks two, three and four because folks just didn't resign," said Terry Baker, the census office manager in Watertown. "I think because of the economic conditions, folks stayed with the jobs because there weren't other jobs available."

The job picture has changed little since then, and the once-a-decade census is being conducted amid a once-in-several-decades recession. The roughly 3,000 part-time, temporary jobs about to open up in a region with an unemployment rate of about 8 percent are more highly coveted than they were in the past, Census Bureau officials agree.

The local census offices in Syracuse, Utica and Watertown -- which cover a combined 18 counties -- have seen a stream of applicants that reflect how bad the economy is.

"What I'm seeing in the applicant pool and from the people we hire is there are a great number of folks with graduate degrees who are working for the census and are not able to find positions in their own field," said Kitty Cowan, manager of the Utica office, which oversees operations in Madison and six other counties.

The first wave of the census was last spring, when employees drove around with GPS devices to match houses with a database of addresses. During the mapping last year, some candidates surfaced that might not have been expected 10 years ago, said Dave Walsh, manager of the Syracuse census office. Among them: young military veterans.

"They just got back, they're looking for employment, they have veteran status and they have the skills to do the job," Walsh said. "We had a young, former tank commander who did a great job for us as a crew leader during the address canvassing."

Walsh said he expects to receive more than 4,000 applicants for about 1,000 jobs. Most of those positions will be census takers, or enumerators, who will knock on the doors of people who don't return their census forms by early April. For every 15 enumerators, the census will hire a crew chief to supervise them.

The pay: $12.25 to $13.50 an hour for census takers, and up to $16.50 an hour for supervisory jobs.

There are two criteria used to select employees: address and test scores. The census compiles a database of people who have passed the written test in the area where they're needed. Those applicants are ranked by their scores. Veterans get 5 points added to their score; disabled veterans receive 10 points.

Test yourself

Two sample questions from the census test:

1. 1.5 x 6.3 equals:

A. .945

B. 9.45

C. 94.5

D. 945

2. Each county is divided into a number of census tracts. The tracts are, in turn, subdivided into blocks. Groups of blocks within a tract are then combined into Assignment Areas (AA). Which of the following shows the four geographic units discussed above, in order of size, from largest to smallest?

A. county, tract, AA, block.

B. county, block, tract, AA.

C. county, AA, tract, block.

D. AA, block, tract, county

(Answers: 1-B, 2-A)

Census job requirements

Looking for a Census job? Call 1-866-861-2010

Qualifications:

Be at least 18 years old.

Read, write and speak English.

U.S. citizen, legal permanent resident, or noncitizen with a work visa.

Valid Social Security number.

Valid driver's license.

Applicants must:

Call for an appointment.

Pass a 28-question, 30-minute test.

Pass a background check.

To take the practice test, and for more information, go to www.syracuse.com for the links.

Edition: Final
Section: Local
Page: B1
Record Number: 1000214519
Copyright, 2010, The Herald Company