I figure those of us doing Mystery Shopping might lend ourselves and our skills to the Census 2010.

I am taking the test on 2/14 locally. Anyone ever work on a census before??

Yes, I worked on the 1990. I was not an enumerator out in the field but rather worked in the office. The way it worked was the forms were mailed out with every 9th (?) house getting the "long" form that was about 30 pages while everyone else got the "short" form which was a fold out about 3 page form. Mailing lists are based on Post Office records originally with a lot of tweaking from there. The goal is to get a form to every habitable location. When the forms come back the bar codes are scanned into the computer to generate a list of what forms are still outstanding. Those missing forms are the first round of forms enumerators are sent out to collect--even if it means sitting down with the resident to help them fill out the form.

The forms are read through by editors and if there are gaps or inconsistencies, they are passed over to the phone crew to call and try to get the form completed. If that doesn't get the form appropriately completed, the form is sent out with an evaluator to get the information.

In the 1990 census there were large plat books in the office to help locate properties where there might be habitable structures that did not receive mail. Enumerators went out to those areas to do visual inspection for habitable structures. My guess is that since the advent of Google maps and similar surface evaluations there is something much more sophisticated used now.

So how do you get involved in the Census?

There is a website dedicated to census jobs...

[www.census.gov]

It looks like they're hiring HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people for the 2010 census.

Wow!

I took the test on 2/6, a passing score is 10 out of 28 questions and they let you retake it as many times as you want to improve your score. They say it will take a couple weeks to let you know when you start but it takes longer than that. They do an extensive background check on you once you pass the test then let you know where to go for your training. The starting pay is something like $11 an hour.

I worked the 2000 census and they trained us for 8 days then the job lasted 3 days and we were tossed out. Hope this time is better than that. I hear that most positions start in March of this year.

I was an ennumerator for Census 2000 in OH. The job training was about a week and then field work with a partner which involved verifying street addresses and adding/deleting entries to the data sheets provided. The job moves forward in phases and I worked P/T on and off for about 15 months. Having a GPS is a definite plus for this type of position lol. I enjoyed the work and the pay was above average for the area.

I guess the 2000 Census having enumerators work in pairs was a response to previous fraud. In 1990 we had too many cases where enumerators were filling out forms in their cars in the 7/11 parking lot

What we did in 2000 was to take the census forms around in person instead of them getting mailed to the homes. We had to verify informaiton as we went along like did someone live in the tree house in the back yard etc.

I did 1980, as a fieldworker, pre-PC, pre-GPS, pre-dinosaur. I just caught this thread, and the phone number, but there are no openings in my area right now. I'm going to call anyway for a part-time clerical job. MSing is petering out for me.

In my area they suggested checking back in March because every test date was oversubscribed and still people showed up who didn't have appointments. I called about a job I am sort of uniquely qualified for and applied for in early January. The closing date was in mid-January. The gal told me they had expected probably 10-20 applications and are still trying to sort their way through over 6000.

I took the test in early January and when I called for the status at the end of Jan they told me I would know if I got a job around the end of Feb or beginning of March. They said the jobs pay $13.25/hr and last 10 weeks. If you work this year you may or may not work next year. They also said the jobs could be full or part time and there is a week of training.

Pay depends on the area you live. There are two tests. One for an enumerator( 30 min) and one for a supervisor(60) min. I took it a month ago and the supervisor two weeks ago.. still waiting to hear.

I took the test on Feb 6 and haven't heard yet. There was only one test being offered here and it sounded like the person giving the overview and handing out the tests didn't know much more than we did.

There has not been anythig about a census around here. No job ads or anything so I forget there is one that is going to be done.

They moved the start time of the census preliminary work to April sometime. No one around here has heard a thing yet. Plus they have to do an extensive background check and run us through homeland security's guidelines as well.

I just started doing this..The training here was 4 days of learning how to turn pages in a book. No real hands on traing of what you are going to do in the field...I am in the second phase...We are confirming-spot checking what they call production workers job...I am what they reffer to as a QC...It is paying 13.75 plus .55 cents for mileage...Once you figure out the hand held computer is is pretty easy...They said there will be other phasesof work..As here they have not done any of the multi redisdents houseing-hospitols-jails-nursing homes ect....Only searching for new streets and homes and verifing old addresses.

The first contact person knocked on my door last week. He was going door to door verifying residential addresses and making sure they were "habitable". In conversation, his story was all too typical. He was a 61 year old downsized engineer, trying to hang on til 65.

I had intended working earlier. In fact, I applied for the 1990 Census, but at the time I didn't have a car, and they didn't give me any assignments. Last October, I tried getting on the website to no avail. I was in a museum where I saw an announcement, and it had a phone number. I took my test in February and trained in March. Our son also took the test, passed, and was told he'd get assignments in spite of not having a car because he lives in the city. He was dropped just when the trainer found out he didn't have a car. I complained about it to the regional supervisor who came around to our training, but he never heard anything else. I thought the Census test was particularly hard.

Seventeen were hired for our district, knowing they only needed 16. I was set to work 40 hours a week at $14 an hour. All of a sudden, all of my jobs started wanting extra work. One company that considers me a part-time employee gave me extra work. I am their only rep in this area, so I had no backup. I had to do their work at $9 an hour. Even an old customer came into town and asked for a transcription of some meetings that took 33 hours. She paid more than the Census and would have paid even more if I had met an early deadline, but I couldn't. I worked until I couldn't work any more. I was in bed sick one day. I still managed to put in a few hours each week. When the project ended at the end of May (early because everyone else was working hard during their 40-hour weeks, I was told I could finish up some leftovers, so I worked til past dark two nights.

I asked my supervisor if I would still be rehired in July since I couldn't put in 40 hours this time. He asked if I could put in 40 hours next time. I said I certainly could. Then immediately, job contacts for on-call assignments and independent contractor work started coming in heavy. I was going to tell him next time I saw him around town that I couldn't work, but I just got a termination notice from the Census, along with a certificate of appreciation. The reason was "lack of work." I suppose that means that since I couldn't work much before, they wouldn't need me for July. I don't know whether the others got the notice, too, but will be recalled. I still tell the Census supervisor when I see him at a Club meeting next Tuesday that I can't work, so he won't be wondering, in case he didn't get the notice that I got the notice.

I would have loved to continue. A friend said it would be rough working in the heat and going to strangers' houses. I told her the rough part was being out in the country for an entire afternoon with no water other than what I would bring and no convenience store for "convenience". That's why I didn't drink water that afternoon. I drank a bucket of water when I got home, though.

One of the Census workers spent six hours in the country without seeing another human being or a car. Another went to a hospital with a dog bite. Some were harassed by people who didn't believe them. I think at least one resident called the sheriff. A man told me that he was staring at my car when I drove up because of all the theft in the area, but when he saw it was a woman driving, he relaxed. I told him women steal, too. Towards the end, the enumerators were paired up because of these problems. I get the impression that there was another problem that we weren't given details about. I think most of us just stayed in the same neighborhood rather than going to doors in pairs. My partner and I were in a huge Census block way out in the country with unnamed dirt roads. Even the map was wrong. He had been in there for so long that he knew where to meet me when I called to make sure I wasn't duplicating his efforts.

I consider Census work an adventurous job and a service to my country. What I did not like was the political interpretation that the test taker put on it which did not agree with my political beliefs. He also told everyone that an accurate Census count would help the country know how many U. S. Senators we need. I wonder if I'm the only person who knew he was wrong but didn't speak up. I decided that with all the nonsense he was spouting, that was just another example so it was pointless to tell him the truth.

if you are not a member of ACORN you will not be able to work on the census. They will have a shutout, thanks to some slick maneuvers by obama and cronies.

OOh, beisen, I guess we can tell your politics. Most of us keep our to ourselves, where they belong, as regards shopping.