February 2, 2009 - 10:09 PM
By KATHIE BASSETT
For The Telegraph
http://www.thetelegraph.com The U.S. Census Bureau expects to hire 1.4 million people nationwide to achieve its goal of counting every person in America.
The U.S. Constitution requires that everyone residing in the country - both citizens and non-citizens - must be counted every 10 years. By law, the Census Bureau must count all people residing in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on April 1, 2010.
For many people who recently have lost their jobs, the new opportunities, while temporary, couldn't come at a better time.
"We need quite an infrastructure for a field operation of this size," said Muriel Jackson, media specialist at the Chicago Regional Census Center. "We will need both management and field employees to do this."
The census provides a snapshot of the U.S. population that encompasses general demographic information about who we are and where we live within our nation's borders.
This demographic information serves as the basis for many planning decisions that affect neighborhood improvements, emergency preparedness and disaster recovery, public health, education, transportation and senior services. This data is used to allocate $300 billion in federal funding to local, state and tribal goverments.
Census information also determines the number of seats each state will have in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Because the census is performed on the local level, it represents a huge undertaking that requires the hiring of field workers who need to update address lists and make sure that its maps accurately represent what actually is located on the ground. Field positions may be cyclical and will offer flexible hours.
Crew leaders also will be hired to train and supervise field workers, recruiting assistants are needed to ensure that the field positions will be filled, and clerks will staff the local census offices during the enumeration process.
"We want to lay the groundwork in 2009 to operate efficiently and effectively when we take the census in 2010," Jackson said.
Management and administrative positions also will be available that may continue throughout the census process. Depending upon the local census office's responsibilities, these positions may include office manager, assistant managers for field operations, quality assurance, recruiting and technology, as well as a partnership specialist for community relations.
"We are looking for people to work in the area where they live," Jackson said.
When the questionnaire finally is mailed in 2010, the agency hopes for a high rate of response. Census takers will conduct in-person interviews only with those people who do not complete the questionnaire by mail.
The interest in these jobs already has been high. Applicants can obtain more information from the toll-free 2010 census jobs line at (866) 861-2010 or online at
www.2010censusjobs.gov for field positions, and at
www.census.gov for management and administrative positions.
Interest is so high that it has had unexpected implications for one Alton area woman whose telephone number was swamped with calls after a similar number was published on a Census Bureau Web site for an office that was not yet open. The number was listed with a Chicago area code, but because it was not yet in service, people began substituting local area codes in hopes of getting through.
The woman asked to remain anonymous. She said she had received dozens of calls for people looking for information on Census Bureau jobs.
The correct number to check for jobs in this area is (618) 307-3711.
That number rings at an Edwardsville office, which is one of 11 Early Local Census Offices. Its geographic area at this time includes Champaign-Urbana, Springfield and Carbondale. The recruiting goal for this office is 6,800 people, Jackson said.
The bureau eventually plans to open one local office in each congressional district in all three states in the region, which is made up of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
A 2010 Census Bureau applicant must be a U.S. citizen at least 18 years old, have a valid Social Security card number, and be able to pass a background check and be fingerprinted. Approved identification must be presented to take a mandatory employment test.
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