California: New census will depend on a high-pay recruiting boom of 12,000 workers

There's new job booming on the block for Americans: census taker, also called "enumerator", involving going door to door of households that do not complete their mandated 2020 census coming in spring.

With unemployment in California at a record low and the national rate also at its lowest in decades, the Census Bureau is going all-out to line up thousands of temporary workers. It has 5,000 recruiters holding workshops at libraries, colleges and retirement communities. It’s partnering with community groups; advertising on radio, transit and social media; and handing out postcards at street fairs and stores as people line up to shop.

“The decennial census is the largest mobilization of a temporary workforce in peacetime,” said a representative overseeing a census job application workshop at St. Anthony’s. “Enumerators are very crucial positions, and we need lots of them.”

Throughout the Bay Area, the census will need about 12,000 workers. Nationwide, the figure is half a million. That includes some jobs for temporary supervisors, recruiters and clerks. The census hires people as employees, not independent contractors. Workers’ compensation and disability coverage are available, but not health and retirement benefits.

The intermittent jobs pay well compared with retail and restaurant work, ranging from $21 an hour in Solano, Sonoma and Napa counties to $30 an hour in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties — the highest in the nation.

Read more here.

Join us February 26-27 for the Property Portal Watch Conference Bangkok 2020.