comments
How To Get Job Working The 2010 U.S. Census
Email
 Print
|
If you’re out of work or looking to supplement your income, you might want to consider working for the U.S. Census Bureau to help collect the 2010 Census. According to CNNMoney, the 2010 Census will put 1.4 million people to work and projected to cost $14 billion, $212 million in advertising. If you want to make some extra cash and have the time, you might want to get the ball rolling on securing a job with the U.S. Census.
Available Jobs
Pay varies depending on the region but Census Takers in Maryland earn anywhere from $11.34 an hour to $15.21 an hour. To find the pay schedule in your region, go to this regional offices map and click on your region. Then click on “Regional Employment” on the left hand side to open up the page listing all the possible openings. You may or may not find the pay schedules for each position on the Regional Employment page. The job will include four days of paid training too.
Census Taker: Most of the positions the Census is hiring will be as Census Takers, individuals who go around the community to verify address lists, conduct interviews, and collect the census. They estimate that the work schedule will be 20-40 hours a week with much flexibility involved. In the case of address canvassing (verifying address lists), you’d be expected to do it during daylight hours. In the case of interviewing tasks like non-response follow-up (finding out why people haven’t filled out and sent back the census), you’d be doing it at night or on weekends when people are home.
Crew Leaders/Assistants: These are more office and clerical jobs where you manage and coordinate the schedules of Census takers and meet with each census taker daily. At local offices, there may be standard office work during normal business hours, including shifts, but there’s a little flexibility involved.
How To Apply
If you want to apply for a job, the U.S. Census Bureau has a very easy to understand page on how you can apply. First, call up their Jobs line at 1-866-861-2010 to schedule an appoint to take their employment test. If you use TTY, the number is 1-800-877-8339 to get relayed. You can also download the Census Employment Application and a Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, from this page. You will need to bring both to your test along with the necessary forms of identitication.
The Census Employment Test
The Census Employment Test is a thirty-minute test designed to test your suitability for field work. They offer a sample test for field employee positions [PDF] to help you prepare. There are five sections: Clerical Skills, Reading Skills, Number Skills, Interpreting Information & Evaluating Alternatives, and Organizational Skills. It’s not a difficult test but it does test a variety of areas, things you probably never saw on a standardized test before.
Regional Offices
When you call the number, you’re calling the national office but hiring is done at the regional level. After you schedule your exam, I recommend that you contact your regional offices to find out if there are jobs there that you can apply for. The main number is for census takers (”field employee positions”) but there may be alternatives in the regional offices. You can look on this map to find your regional office (there are twelve) and drill down to the local centers (there are 150).
Act quickly if you are seriously interested, they hope to hire most of their employees by May 2009.
{ 17 comments, please add your thoughts now! }
Related Posts
 By Jim |
 Stumble It! Bookmark reddit.comTags: Census, Job Tips, Unemployment Mar 17, 2009 | Read more in Career |
Like this article? Get all the latest articles sent to your email for free every day. Enter your email address and click "Subscribe." Your email will only be used for this daily subscription and you can unsubscribe anytime.
Great ideas! Keep them coming.
I never would have thought to consider this, but as I’m moving soon to a new area, it could serve as a great way to meet people. To make a good amount of money on the side and to get to know the area better, it doesn’t get any better than this.
I’ll have to read further into it. May 2009 might be too soon for me though :-\
you may be wasting your time taking the test. Investigate first beforehand>>> i tok the test. p.s. they’ll tell you that if you applied for a clerical job @ the Census, there aren’t any avail. ( even thouhg they put this option on the application). Jobs may not become available until at least Sept.Good luck.
This is a great opportunity! I wonder if they have any jobs for people under 18… If so, I might try to find time to help.
Thanks,
Nate
The notice I saw said 18 and above. Sorry.
saladdin
Not a bad hourly wage to go around an interview people and verify addresses. This is a really great opportunity for those who are having a tough time trying to find a position now and could also help with our struggling economy.
My Uncle who was recently laid off was able to get a job working for the Census. Not a career, but definitely a short term solution to help you earn money.
There aren’t very many census jobs actually available. Most areas have already met their quota, although there’s always room for dropouts and attrition. I’m not sure that this is a viable option for those who have a near-term need to find employment.
Actually, there are quite a few jobs still available depending on where you live. I’m a crew leader in Wyoming and every single area in my FOS district is short people. For my own personal district, I have an assistant and lister. I need about 8-9 more people. There are several other districts with only one lister.
CrewLeader – Thanks for sharing your knowledge, hopefully someone reading in Wyoming will apply and you can fill up your spots.
I took & passed the Census test after responding to a news ad that they will be hiring 105,000 people.That’s not the case.At first you are givne false impression that you will be contacted, which is not true.I followed up with a call.The numbers listed on their web. pge. doesn’t provide any information. It’s constantly busy. When you finally do get thorugh, you informed that the hiring will not come from your local office: only form the regional office. and they in turn aren’t that responsive. How are people supposed to get back into the workforce if there is a stall on hiring practices. The only jobs that are moving at a pace are in construction.
When you took the test a brochure should’ve been available for you to take home. It would have let you know that it may take them several weeks to call you back (depending on the need in your area). It also lets you know that you may not get a call back at all. However, in many rural areas they are still hiring, calling people back within 1-2 weeks, and putting them in training. I’ve noticed that most people who didn’t take the brochure home often say that they had problems after taking the test.
where is the supervisor’s sample test? i’ve looked and looked!
I was a data transcriper in 1979 for the Census for California. I would like to work from home any chance this could happen. I retired 2 yrs from the federal govt. and was in for 27 yrs as a supervisor. Who would I contact.
im currently working as an enumerator with the census. we go out and verify addresses and our part will be over soon. the next wave is the follow up people who go out to homes where the forms were not returned. there are no openings as far as we have heard for those positions as everyone already working wants to continue. half if not more of us wont even be picked because the amount of people is greater than the need. this is in so cal
I worked as a Lister and then in Quality Control for about a month and a half. I have not worked in two weeks because the Crew Leader does not have any work. There has not been any direction at all but I still have the handheld computer.
I am looking for a practice test for crew leader and crew leader assistant. I have looked everywhere. Please let me know. Thank you.