WASHINGTON, DC — The US Census Bureau is looking to hire hundreds of workers nationwide ahead of next year's national count.
The agency is hosting over 2,000 recruitment events across the county in an effort to hire half a million census takers in 2020.
Maria Olmedo Malagon, Program Manager of the 2020 Census, says the ideal candidate is someone who is plugged into their community. She says, “We are looking for people that know the community. We love to hire from the community because they know their neighbors, how the geography is around."
Challenges to taking an accurate census range from language barriers to people who are difficult to reach since they may be renting rooms or are homeless, presenting the need for census takers to collect information in person.
Malagon also addressed concerns that respondents may be fearful that their citizenship status will be reported. She says privacy is of the utmost important and the Census Bureau is looking to hire Census takers respondents can trust. She says, “we need people that are knowledgeable, that the neighbors know, that they are familiar faces, the ones that they can trust, because our number one challenge, but at the same time priority, is to guarantee privacy and confidentiality, so we really want them to know their neighbors and be a familiar face.”
The March Census is critical as every individual must be counted each decade to apportion Congressional seats.An inaccurate head count could potentially result in the loss of a Congressional seat and federal funding.
Malagon says, “It’s a very easy job of going around the neighborhood counting people in the different households, just the people that didn’t respond to the Census originally. We are going to start sending the first notices in March, people can answer online, or by phone, or by mail, but if someone didn’t answer or forgot to answer or needs extra help, the census takers will go around helping them.”
To apply for a Census position, log onto 2020census.gov.