Thread: Census jobs unfilled in some places

Census jobs unfilled in some places

Posted 26m ago
By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY

The Census Bureau is having trouble finding qualified temporary workers in some neighborhoods for the national head count despite the record number of jobless who have swelled the nationwide pool of applicants.
Census already has recruited 3 million potential workers for the 1.2 million jobs needed to conduct the 2010 Census. Most will go door-to-door to homes that don't mail back the 10-question form that most households will receive by mid-March.

SCHEDULE: 2010 Census key dates
Q&A: What you need to know about the Census
DEMOGRAPHICS: Multiracial no longer boxed in

But meeting the government's goal of hiring workers in the neighborhoods where they live is a challenge in some places:

• On the south side of Hartford, Conn., the Census is getting plenty of applicants but not the ones they need: people who speak Polish, Russian, Urdu, Hindi, Korean and Vietnamese. On the north side, an upscale area, the Census can't find enough people who need the jobs that pay $15 to $22.75 an hour in Hartford.

"In professional neighborhoods, the recession didn't really hit yet," says Bruce Kaminski, deputy regional director for the Boston region that includes New England, Upstate New York and Puerto Rico. "Doctors are still employed. Lawyers are still employed."

• In central Dallas, where more people work than live, recruitment efforts are reaching mostly commuters who live in the suburbs. Many residents of the business district live in upscale condos and are less likely to apply.

• In Texas oil towns that are prospering even in this economy, it's tough to find qualified people willing to work temporary jobs, says Gabriel Sanchez, director of the Census Bureau's Dallas regional office, which also includes Louisiana and Mississippi. The jobless rate, 9.7% in the USA, is 5.4% in the Midland, Texas, metropolitan area and 6% in the Abilene metro area.

• In Martha's Vineyard, Mass., a summer resort, there aren't enough people living on the island in the offseason to hire.

The same thing is happening in Superior, Wis., on the shore of Lake Superior, says Wendy Button, chief of recruiting for the 2010 Census. "We're having trouble getting people there because of weekend homes," she says.

• In Cincinnati, the local office has extended the hiring deadline because it's having difficulty finding enough workers in several neighborhoods.

The Census Bureau needs 3.8 million people in its pool of eligible workers by the end of April. It needs many more people to apply for every job because some don't do well on a test, fail the background check or aren't willing to work the hours they're assigned.

"Some will come to the recruiting session and leave," Kaminski says. "Some people will show up for training and not show up the second day."

This week, about 56,000 Census workers started delivering the questionnaires to 12 million homes, mostly locations that do not have city-style addresses.

Census Director Robert Groves says the agency will not give up on filling the jobs with people who live in the neighborhoods they will be canvassing. It is working with local organizations to recruit more people.

"The Census is better done that way," he says. "We are devoted to that goal."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/cen ... ring_N.htm

Besides pressing 1 for English, why would anyone have to speak Urdu to get a job paid by taxpayers? Apparently English is not worth being considered an official language in this country, or is that politically incorrect for me to ask?

I think part of the reason could be that census workers have to go to households who dont really want to do the census....otherwise they would have mailed it in. For whatever reason, they are avoiding filling it out. There may be some households who did mail it in and it got lost, but most will be those who do not want to. And going door to door is not easy work and should pay way more than it does.