- Next year’s census will not only count people, it will also put money in millions of pockets and potentially create a well-timed economic spark. Not in more than a half-century has the United States census been conducted amid such high rates of joblessness. The 1.2 million census-taking jobs may be temporary, but they pay well, and economists say they will provide a significant lift. “These are real jobs with good solid hourly pay,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com.
- Mr. Zandi added: “It’s a form of stimulus. It’s like infrastructure spending, or W.P.A. in the Depression. It effectively does the same thing. It’s not on the same scale, but it is large enough, and it will make a difference.”
- Mr. Zandi, along with many other economists, believes the nation will stop shedding jobs in the spring, and by the time these census jobs wind down over the summer, the private sector will be poised to begin adding jobs again. “When we look back historically, the census will mark the end of the downdraft of employment,” he said.
- Recruiting is just beginning for the jobs. The Census Bureau began adding temporary offices across the country in the fall and has recently been holding open houses to encourage people to sign up for a half-hour test that is the first step to a job. It has also set up a Web site with information for job seekers. About 13,000 workers were hired this month.
- The peak of the bureau’s hiring, however, will be in late April and early May when about 800,000 people are expected to be on its payroll, most of them as field workers, knocking on doors to follow up with households that did not return census forms mailed in March. The positions vary in length and pay, but the average job is 20 hours a week for six weeks, paying $10 to $25 an hour.
- Lee Ann Morning, office manager of the bureau’s Denver office, said her staff was caught off guard after an open house last December that received some news coverage. Every phone in the office was ringing, and additional staff members were called in to handle the volume. Hundreds of calls rolled over to voicemail, which quickly filled up. Many callers were unable to get through. “It was that kind of overwhelming response,” Ms. Morning said.
- Similar scenes across the country surprised census officials. Besides the volume, the caliber of the applicants was unprecedented.
America - as you have shipped away your productive capability over the past few decades to turn to the "house flipping" "financing" and "shopping" new paradigm "services" economy, here are the results - some of your brightest minds in a desperate grab for a 6 week government job:
- “We saw certainly college degrees, master’s degrees, Ph.D.’s, doctors, all kinds of people you wouldn’t think would be looking for a temporary part-time position,” Ms. Morning said.
A situation best summarized in this one line in another NYT story:
- “Those who want a good job have nothing to choose from,” said Mr. Edwards, a former copier technician at Xerox, whose ancestors settled the area after the Revolutionary War. The best chances for employment, he added, lie in the sprawling prison system, government agencies, hospitals and schools, “and there’s nothing in between.”
