By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The U.S. Census is still hiring.
Though the once-a-decade national head count has been stalled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the census is still taking applications for jobs to start in June.
This summer the census is still planning on doing the face-to-face enumeration of those who did not respond to mail solicitations to fill out the form.
Another mailing is heading out to remind people they can fill out the census form – which is required by law – online, over the telephone or by mail.
All this is preferable to having census workers trekking through cities and across the countryside, to get the data.
The Constitutionally mandated count is used for multiple purposes – determining congressional districts and the number of U.S. House members a state has; calculating how federal funds in a wide range of programs will be disbursed; and providing endless fodder for demographers and other researchers.
The regional census office is hiring for jobs that will start June 1, said Jodi Reitz, recruitment manager working out of the Toledo office, which covers 28 counties in Ohio.
She said those interested need to file their applications now. Visit 2020CENSUS.GOV/JOBS; call 1-888-480-1639; or text jobs 2020 to 313131.
The office had already started recruiting the 3,000 workers it needs. About 2,000 had been hired when the COVID-19 pandemic put the process on hold.
So, there are 1,000 jobs to fill, and she expects there could be twice as many if some of those hired earlier are no longer available. “You don’t need a degree or diploma or experience,” she said.
The jobs pay between $18 and $20 an hour, and offer flexible schedules. “Now’s the time to get the application in,” Reitz said.
The face-to-face count is scheduled to begin this summer, but the Census Bureau has asked that it be delayed, so that it would instead start Aug. 1 and be completed Oct. 31. That requires congressional approval. The hiring, though, will proceed regardless.
To date, Reitz said, about 50 percent of residents have responded to the census.
COVID-19 has put a crimp in the promotion.
It hit just as census marketing efforts were ready to slip into high gear. Mobile units were ready to head out to fairs, malls, college campuses and other places people gather so census workers would be able to answer questions and help people complete the form.
“We were trying to do everything we could not to go face to face,” Reitz said. “People don’t like people coming to their door and now there’s a whole new reason.”
The census is concerned about contacting hard to reach people in both cities and the country.
That includes underserved and older populations in Toledo.
Also, people in small rural Ohio communities may only have post office boxes so the census form will not be delivered.
They may have inadequate internet services and can’t go to public libraries, which are closed, to use the internet service there.
Libraries typically offer another avenue both for outreach and assistance for those filling out the census.
