All around America this week, the U.S. Census Bureau is taking applications for people-counters. They are the people who will be the temporary part-time census takers for the 2010 Census. The pay is good, the hours are flexible and the work is close to home. Down the street and around the block in cities and towns, down the road and up a farm lane in rural areas.

Census-taker jobs are excellent, the Bureau said, for retirees, college students, persons who want to work part-time, persons who are between jobs, or just about anyone who wants to earn extra money while performing an important service for the nation.

There are also the unemployed, who may be interested.

The nation’s economy, with thousands of workers laid off their jobs, has made the Census Bureau the most popular source for immediate jobs and an income.

Diane Abendroth is the local Census Bureau office manager in St. Paul.

Her territory includes 41 Minnesota counties, including Mower and Freeborn.

Another state office covers the remaining 46 counties.

Abendroth knows census-taking from the ground up. “I was an enumerator when I started with the Census Bureau seven years ago,” she said. “Enumerators” are the “grunts” or “soldiers” in the decennial census. They knock on doors, ring bells and otherwise collect the information from household members, who haven’t replied by mail.

“Our phone hasn’t stopped ringing since we opened our office and announced the jobs would be available,” Abendroth said. ‘There’s an awful lot of interest.”

This week in Austin, Bryan Green is taking applications and testing individuals for Census jobs at the Austin Public Library.

Green started his work Tuesday and will also take applications Thursday, beginning 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. in the large meeting room at the Austin Public Library.

On Tuesday, Johannes Kestner, an Elkton resident, who is about to move to Grand Meadow, was one of the applicants for a census job.

Already employed in Austin, Kestner said he is looking for a job to supplement his income.

He may have an important edge: He was a field supervisor for the 2000 census in Mower County.

“The census is very important,” Kestner said, “based on the fact that it allocates the money for the counties and the cities. Without having that accurate information from the census, it would be very hard to allocate the money to municipalities, counties and states.”

“Without participating, you’re taking that money away from local government,” he said.

Kestner said his introduction to the census a decade ago was a “very satisfying experience, because I had excellent workers.”

“Mower County had one of the highest response rates of any county in Minnesota,” Kestner said.

Ten years ago, 40 people took census jobs in Mower County. Beginning with the hiring of “listers” or those people, who canvass addresses, the number of jobs could approach 1000, according to census-taker job recruiter Green. The same number will be hired in Freeborn County, according to Green.

Background

The census is a count of everyone residing in the United States: In all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas.

All residents of the United States must be counted. This includes people of all ages, races, ethnic groups, citizens and non-citizens.

Every 10 years a census is taken in America.

Census questionnaires will be mailed or delivered to every household in the United States in March 2010. The questions ask households to provide information that is accurate for their household as of April 1, 2010.

The Census Bureau must count everyone and submit state population totals to the U.S. President by Dec. 31, 2010.

The first Census was conducted in 1790 and has been carried out every 10 years since then.

People should be counted where they live and sleep most of the year, the law requires.

The U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 2) mandates a head count of everyone residing in the United States. The population totals determine each state’s Congressional representation. The numbers also affect funding in communities and help inform decision-makers about how a community is changing.

The Census Bureau will mail or deliver questionnaires to homes in March 2010. The Bureau will mail a second form to households that do not respond to the initial questionnaire.

Households that still do not respond will be called or visited by a Census worker. (Census workers can be identified by a census badge and bag.)

According to the Census Bureau, the 2010 census comes with a change.

In the past, most households received a short-form questionnaire, while one household in six received a long form that contained additional questions and provided more detailed socioeconomic information about the population.

The 2010 Census will be a short-form only census.

The more detailed socioeconomic information is now collected through the American Community Survey. The survey provides current data about a community every year, rather than once every 10 years. It is sent to a small percentage of the population on a rotating basis throughout the decade. No household will receive the survey more often than once every five years, according to the Census Bureau.

Kestner hopes to obtain a field supervisor’s job for the 2010 census in Mower County.

Census-takers receive competitive pay on a weekly basis. In addition, they will be reimbursed for authorized mileage and related expenses.

All census-takers must be able to speak English, but bilingual skills in English and other languages are needed in communities that have a large number of residents who speak a language other than English.

Kestner, the census job-seeker, turned a walking, talking advertisement for the nation’s head count.

“I would encourage everyone when they get the census form in the mail to fill it out,” he said.

By day’s end Tuesday, Census recruiter Green said he had more than 40 applicants seek Census work.

Green will be in Albert Lea today Wednesday and again Friday at the Albert Lea City Hall.

Next week, he will re-visit Austin and Albert Lea on the same Tuesday-Thursday, Wednesday-Friday schedule.