Tuesday, January 18, 2000
Wanted: 25,000 census takers
BY CINDY SCHROEDER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
When Marc Bergman, the census office manager in Covington, talks to prospective census workers, he appeals to their civic pride, as well as their pocketbooks.
“A lot of people volunteer to serve on zoning commissions or do beautification projects for garden clubs,” Mr. Bergman said. “For your community, census work is just as important, and you get paid to do it.”
In 520 offices across the country, those in charge of the national head count recently launched a recruitment drive for a half-million part-time workers. Most workers are needed for four to six weeks around census day, on April 1, and pay ranges from $8.25 an hour to $18.50 per hour, depending on locality.
With low unemployment, officials know that filling those jobs won't be easy.
Throughout the Tristate, about 25,000 applicants will be needed to ensure that there are enough part-time workers to conduct a complete count. Most are needed to count residents in rural areas that lack street addresses, or to collect information from anyone who didn't
mail back a census form.
“It's bad in that the quicker you work, the quicker you're working yourself out of a job,” said Mary Groen, census office manager for the Cincinnati office. “But this is your chance to be a part of history, and fulfill your civic responsibility.”
In the Covington census office, where 3,000 applicants are needed to ensure a sufficient pool to count heads in 16 counties, pay recently was raised from $9.75 an hour to $11.50 per hour.
“Market conditions indicated we needed to raise the rate to make it attractive, because it wasn't very competitive with other businesses in the area,” said Jerry Stahl, a partnership specialist for the five-state census region that includes Kentucky.
In Southwest Ohio, census pay ranges from $12.25 to $12.75 per hour. Census workers also receive mileage reimbursement of 32.5 cents a mile.
About two-thirds of census workers are employed full-time elsewhere, but rely on the part-time federal jobs for a quick cash infusion,” said Jim Miller, manager of the Hamilton census office serving Butler, Clermont, Warren and Preble counties.
Local census offices have to hire a lot more workers than they actually need, because a lot of people decide this is something they don't want to do, or aren't able to do,” Mr. Stahl said.
To ensure a complete and accurate count, local census offices are required to hire workers who live within their boundaries. For example, a Northern Kentucky resident can work only for the Covington census office, not the offices in Cincinnati or Blue Ash.
“When people answer their door, they're more likely to be freer with information if they see a neighbor, ” Mr. Miller said. “Local residents also are familiar with the neighborhoods.”
Inaccurate census counts can mean the loss of millions of federal dollars for everything from playgrounds to senior centers, and the potential loss of political representation.
Past Tristate losses because of low census counts have been huge.
Cincinnati was undercounted by 3.1 percent in 1990 and lost an estimated $40 million, according to Miss Groen.
Covington was short by 8.8 percent, and lost about $13 million in state and federal dollars, according to Bruce Suedkamp, a partnership specialist overseeing the 2000 census count in 16 Kentucky counties.
“If you aren't counted, your community might not get that grant money it needs to fill that pothole on your street,” Miss Groen said. “And if enough children are missed in the count, it can lead to overcrowded schools.”
TO APPLY
For information on census jobs or to apply, call (888) 325-7733.
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