Apply Online For Census Jobs: Link To Application

BAY AREA — Good pay, short commutes and flexible hours are among the enticements for seeking temporary work as a temporary census taker in the Bay Area and applications are now being accepted through Dec. 31.

Jobs will be following up with households next spring that have not responded by filling out the census form and the stakes for getting an accurate count are high.

Final figures will determine federal and state funding that comes to the area over the next decade for such needs as transportation, housing, and health care, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson said in a presentation earlier this year.

Sixty percent of Alameda County's revenue comes from federal and state sources and population figures also determine federal and state elected representation, which could shrink if the count is not complete.

"There are a number of things that impact you directly and indirectly. There's a lot of data that's gathered," said Carson, who has represented Piedmont, Albany, Berkeley and parts of Oakland) since 1993. "If you think about it logically, it gives us the basis for projections over the next 10 years."

And there is just one shot to get the tally right before final figures are submitted and "calculations of how much money to provide" are made, he said. "That stays in granite for 10 years."

The county estimates that each person not counted results in an annual funding loss of $1,000, and that an undercount of 6 percent would translate to $1 billion less in allocations over the ensuing decade.

The U.S. Census Bureau is recruiting hundreds of temporary census takers in the Bay Area for work that will primarily be in May and June.

The hourly pay rate is $30 in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties; $25 in Marin, Alameda and Contra Costa counties; and $20 in Napa, Solano and Santa Cruz counties.

The national tally, done every 10 years starting with the inaugural census in 1790, will be transitioning from the traditional paper forms.

"The 2020 census is radically different," Carson said. "This will be the very first that households will do online. But the systems have not been thoroughly tested."

The county estimates that more than 26 percent of its population, an estimated 413,000 residents, falls in the classification of hard-to-count, including college students, those without homes, and immigrants, that census takers will try to reach.

Online Application for Census Jobs

To apply for work as a census taker fill out the online application. Interviews for positions will be held in January and February.

For more information about 2020 Census jobs, call (855) 562-2020.

— Bay City News