Contact Portland US Census office
503-205-8353 to schedule a test
or check out:
www.census.gov/2010censusjobs/
By Mary Owen
The pay is good, the hours are flexible and the work is close to home.
The job?
U.S. Census taker – an opportunity for retirees, students, homemakers and other jobseekers who want to receive competitive pay on a weekly basis as well as earn experience for future employment.
“We certainly need people to apply for these positions,” said Michael Burns, deputy regional director with the U.S. Census regional office in Seattle. “There are a lot of pre-census operations that we do.
“In April, we do address canvassing, checking to see if there is only one house for a street address,” he gave as an example. “We’ll knock on doors to find out if any additional units like mother-in-law apartments are accounted for, for accuracy.”
According to Burns, the bureau’s Portland office, serving the greater Portland, Gresham, Beaverton and Salem areas, is gearing up to hire thousands of census takers to update address lists, conduct interviews with community residents, and then in 2010, count Oregon’s more than 3.7 million people.
Most people hired will work as census takers or “enumerators,” as they are called by the bureau, Burns said.
They will work daylight hours in their own communities and must provide their own transportation. No special experience is required for the job, which pays $15.25 an hour. Bilingual workers (Spanish, Russian, Asian and more) are encouraged to apply, but must also speak English.
Work will be supervised by a crew leader, and although work hours will be flexible, census takers will be expected to complete their work on time. They also will be expected to visit all the residences in their assigned area to verify address lists. They will record data on a hand-held computing device, which will transmit the data via wireless communications to the field office.
Other positions include office clerks, earning $11.50 an hour, to a Field Operations Supervisor who will be paid $18.25 an hour. These jobs are in the Portland office, which oversees the work done in the greater Salem area, including Stayton and Sublimity.
“Next year, we plan to open one in Salem,” Burns said. “But for now, all will be handled by Portland, which is gearing up to do a lot of testing.” All applicants will be given a multiple-choice test that includes reading, basic math and map reading. Tests may be taken a second time to improve a score.
“To take the test, people need to call Carl Nelson, the assistant manager for the Portland office, at 503-205-8353,” Burns said. “A test will be scheduled at a testing site throughout the various counties. We’ll try to schedule a session close to the applicant’s home town.”
To prepare, potential applicants may take a practice test at the Census 2101 JOBS Web site or can call for more information to the JOBS Hotline number, 866-861-2010. TDD users should call the federal relay service at 800-877-8339.
Successful test takers can expect a phone interview, after which they may be offered temporary employment.
“Also with our jobs, part of the qualifying procedure is to do background checks,” Burns said of the step taken to make sure census takers are not unsuitable for the face-to-face aspects of the job.
Applicants will be hired from almost every community and will be selected based on the hiring needs of the area. Most hiring will take place from February to May, and for this preliminary round.
“Usually we assign people in proximity to where they live,” Burns said.
Federal law requires people to participate in the census. Information collected is protected and the actual survey only takes about 10 minutes.
