The Census Bureau will create approximately 10,000 new jobs in Maryland this year, helping to stimulate the slow economy and providing a lift for a 7.3 percent unemployment rate.

To qualify, residents must fill out an application form and I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification Form and pass a basic skills test from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The test, meant to be fairly simple -- reading, basic math, map reading and following instructions -- is a deciding factor in securing a part-time, six-to-10-week, interviewer's job with a flexible schedule and $18.50 an hour, a rate that varies by location.

The nine census offices in Maryland and two in the District of Columbia started hiring 400 to 500 employees each on Jan. 25 for preliminary ground work and to conduct group quarters advance visits, visits to group living facilities such as college dorm rooms and prisons, to notify management of their spring arrival, said Joe Quartullo, area manager at the Philadelphia Regional Census Center.

Quartullo said an estimated 1.2 million to 1.4 million people will apply to work for the 2010 Census team nationally, He estimates roughly half a million people will be hired nationwide.

As field operations begin after Census Day on April 1, Quartullo estimates 10,000 new jobs will be available to Marylanders and 2,000 to 3,000 positions will be available in Washington.

The Census Bureau, Quartullo said, is looking for people from communities so that they can send them back to work in those communities.

"We want to make sure everyone is counted," said Quartullo. "Every person represents dollars coming to the states."

Approximately $400 billion in federal funds are distributed to the states based on census numbers.

Although the Maryland unemployment rate was reported at 7.3 percent in November 2009, according to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, filling these temporary positions has proved challenging, said Tahira Henderson, assistant manager of recruiting at the Washington, D.C.-West office.

Henderson said she receives approximately 200 inquiries a day.

However, she is looking for people from different neighborhoods, and language and cultural barriers have created recruitment challenges, she said.

A recent hire herself, Henderson, 30, said she needed time to figure out what her next job was going to be.

"This gives me the opportunity to give lots of other people jobs," Henderson said. "And in tough economic times, a relatively simple test and an application for pretty competitive hourly pay is a great opportunity."

Henderson has been able to make several contacts through her position at the bureau, which she encourages new employees to do as well. They can work in the communities they live, avoid commuter headaches, work on flexible schedules with competitive pay rates and in environments they are comfortable in.

The new job opportunities created by the Census Bureau may also help stimulate local consumer consumption.

"It should have some impact on the local economy. With a Maryland labor force of 2.5 million individuals, 10,000 is not a trivial amount," said Daraius Irani, director of the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University.

Although most census jobs are temporary and part-time, the opportunities will allow the local economy to be better off than it is at present, Irani said.

"It'll bridge that gap from today to what it could be in a year from now."

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user comments (1)

user glendalez says...

It’s no surprise that U.S. consumers cut their spending because of the present economic condition. Also, the unemployment rate, for most of 2009 and now in the beginning of 2010, is just over 10% for the U.S. Granted, the unemployment rate, or jobless rate, is difficult to accurately calculate, since there are also people that are underemployed, or work part time to keep a little cash now coming in. Benefits for people needing unemployment assistance have been extended, but it certainly can't last forever. Experts are predicting that the rate will drop almost one percent in 2010, but whether or not it will happen is something else.

Posted 5:34 AM, 02.05.10

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