Census Bureau raises pay to get more applicants

Low unemployment leads to fewer takers

Hiring people to knock on the doors of people who fail to fill out Census forms is never easy.

But with an economy generally doing well compared to a decade ago, the Census Bureau is seeing abysmal application numbers for those tough censustaker jobs to work on the official 2020 Census that begins in April.

To try to counter that, the Census Bureau recently raised the hourly rate it will pay to hire people for the job in all but two of the eight counties in southwestern Pennsylvania — four of them by 20% or more.

“We understood the unemployment rate in many of our areas was low,” Roxanne Wallace, assistant regional Census manager for the Pittsburgh region, said Thursday. “And for Allegheny County we understood that $18.50 [an hour] just did not attract that many applicants.”

That turned out to be true all over the region. In addition to pushing the hourly wage in Allegheny County from $18.50 to $23.50 an hour — a 26.8% increase — the bureau also increased the hourly wage nearly 30% in Washington County from $17 to $22, and 26% in Greene County, from $17 to $21.50 an hour.

“I think it bodes well for the economy in Washington

County” to see such an increase in pay, said Washington County Commissioner Larry Maggi. “But to get skilled labor for any position is really difficult now because of the energy business down here.”

“For somebody considering a census worker [job] there’s so many opportunities now to attract qualified people they had to raise salaries a little bit.”

Among the eight-county southwestern Pennsylvania region, only Fayette and Armstrong counties did not see an increase from the $16an-hour pay the bureau is offering.

It has been even harder to hire people in Washington County than in Allegheny County. In Washington County, the Census Bureau has only gotten 32.7% of the applications it hoped to have by March 2, when it will begin hiring census takers, compared to 49.8% in Allegheny. Application counts generally are about one-third of what the bureau would like it to be in the region.

The problem was more widespread than just southwestern Pennsylvania.

Officials knew filling almost half a million jobs to conduct the 2020 Census would be difficult given the country’s low unemployment rate. But recruiting for the decennial population count “is more of a challenge than we anticipated,” said Fernando Armstrong, director of the Census Bureau’s Philadelphia Regional Office.

In Philadelphia, the bureau will pay census takers $25.50 an hour, up from the $23. Workers in Montgomery and Chester counties in Pennsylvania, and Camden and Gloucester, suburban New Jersey counties of Philadelphia, are getting a raise. Chester County census takers are benefiting the most, earning $27.50 per hour, up from $19.50. While some counties like Bucks ($20.50), Delaware ($19.50), and Burlington, N.J., ($20) counties will not see an increase.

The 2020 Census will determine the distribution of hundreds of billions of dollars to state and local governments, the number of seats each state gets in the U.S. House, and the boundaries of voting districts.

According to census officials, the bureau has raised hourly rates in almost 300 local jurisdictions by an average of $2.85 throughout Pennsylvania; Washington; Delaware; Maryland; Ohio; Virginia; Kentucky; Tennessee;

and West Virginia, which are all covered by the Philadelphia regional office. The bureau has increased pay for previous census counts, but “a lot more areas are benefiting from the higher rate than in the past,” Mr. Armstrong said.

In addition to the good economy, Blair Zimmerman, one of Greene County’s commissioners, said the tenor of current politics could be part of the reluctance of some people to apply to be a census taker — no matter how good the pay is.

“I think a lot of people don’t want to face their friends or neighbors and have them [complain to] them about the government,” he said.

Mr. Zimmerman said that knowing how important an accurate count is to his county, he has even tried to encourage people he knows who could use extra cash to apply as a census taker.

Sarah Penich, an administrator with the Greene County Commission, has headed up their Complete Count Committee.

She believes that once the holidays are over, and people learn about the increase in pay, the Census Bureau will see a surge in applications from Greene County.

“This time of year, people aren’t focused on the Census, they’re focused on the holidays,” she said.

The pay increase could even help to overcome people’s reluctance to take what amounts to a temporary, fulltime job, since the censustaker position generally only lasts about eight weeks.

“I think because it’s not a regular, full-time position, it’s harder” to find applicants, she said. “People are looking for permanency.”

Greene County is about to post information on its website about how people can apply for census-taker positions, and Ms. Penich said she will target Waynesburg University with flyers to try to get some of the college students to take some of the positions.

“We need more people to get a good count,” she said. “We need a good count because that’s what determines funding. And we need the [census] workers to do that.”

To apply for a job for the 2020 Census, visit their website at: https://www.census.gov/about/regions/philadelphia/jobs/pennsylvania.html or call 1-800-563-6499.