There has been a lot of talk in the media about the Census hiring hundreds of thousands of people. I decided to apply for a Census job and am sharing my application experience in this post.
Applying for the Census is pretty easy. All you need to do is call 1-866-861-2010 and they will put you through to your local office. Alternatively, you can contact your local census office by locating it on the local census office map page. I called my local office and was scheduled to take the census test just a couple days later. In my area they have multiple tests per week in different areas of the city so it is easy to schedule a test.
After arriving for the test you have to first fill out some paperwork. There are just a couple pages of paperwork and it is very simple but they go through it in excruciatingly slow detail. Even then some people had a hard time keeping up. The test itself is 30 minutes long and very easy. If you have basic reading and math skills and can locate places on a map you should have no problem. Somehow I managed to miss two questions but apparently that is good enough. About half of the people I was testing with were planning on taking the test again, presumably due to a poor result. There appears to be a lot of competition for Census jobs but a lot of the competition appears pretty weak.
If you are wondering how much a Census job pays that varies by region. In Kansas City the jobs pay $15.50 per hour but in other areas of Missouri the pay is as little as $10.50 per hour. You will also receive mileage reimbursement for the use of your car.
This probably varies by region but I was told they would begin calling people for employment in March. They also expected that the jobs would not last more than two months. A Census job could be a nice bit of extra money but for those in search of steady income it probably wouldn’t be much help.