Bureau gears up for 2010
Census; plans to hire 600,000
temporary workers

If nonprofit employers thought the job market was tight now, imagine what will happen when the U.S. Census Bureau launches its once-a-decade nose count of Americans. “The success of the 2010 Census depends, in part,” says a report by the General Accounting Office, “upon the Bureau’s ability to recruit, hire and train a temporary workforce reaching almost 600,000.”

Hawai‘i has about 0.4 percent, 1.2 million, of the nation’s population of almost 300 million. Based on that, about 2,400 workers might be hired to count Hawai‘i’s noses.  For the 2000 Census, the Bureau aggressively recruited different ethnic groups and races, senior citizens, retirees and others seeking part-time employment. According to the GAO, the Bureau will use a similar recruitment strategy for the 2010 count. In addition, the Bureau will involve community and other groups to encourage participation in the census, particularly among persons with limited English proficiency and minorities.

It will also launch advertising campaigns to reach undercounted populations. The ad agencies that contract for those campaigns will be required to subcontract with women-owned and small disadvantaged businesses and must have experience in marketing to “historically undercounted populations such as African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, American Indian and Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.” This contract is expected to be awarded in September 2007.

Beginning in October 2008, from an anticipated 1.3 million applicants, the Census will hire 74,344 canvassers, 8,276 crew leaders and assistants and 66,068 field staff, who will work from early 2009 through July 2009.

But that’s only the beginning. Starting in October 2009, the Bureau will screen 2.5 million applicants and hire 524,989 workers for “nonresponse” follow-up who will work from April through October 2010 to complete data gathering for the 2010 Census. An additional 58,342 crew leaders and assistants and 466,647 field staff will be hired, too.

Despite all this manpower – or perhaps because of it – the Bureau plans to spend $3 billion on automation and technology, according to the GAO, or about $10 per American counted.