Yes, the Census Bureau still needs workers

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

The U.S. Census Bureau still needs workers, even though the coronavirus has pushed back the work census takers will be doing for the 2020 Census.

Fernando Armstrong, the regional director of the Census Bureau, said the bureau has recruited 96 percent of the census takers they were hoping to get.

“We’ll still need a robust pool when the (Centers for Disease Control,) Gov. Mike DeWine and other leaders tell us that we can resume as normal,” Armstrong said. “We are still encouraging people to apply. College students are back home, there are people whose hours have been reduced, there are many people looking for ways to supplement their income right now and census jobs are ideal for that.”

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Armstrong said by late May, the U.S. Census Bureau will start training workers virtually to get remaining responses to the 2020 Census. Also around that time, the Census Bureau will begin sending out smart devices for census takers to use and any other materials they might need.

Workers would start getting paid when that training and work starts.

To apply for a census job, call (855) 562-2020.

For people who have already applied for a job as a census taker, Armstrong said that the Census Bureau may be taking longer to get back with them because of the coronavirus.

To check on an application to be a census taker, applicants can go to the same portal through which they applied, Armstrong said.

If someone hasn’t responded to the 2020 Census by Wednesday, April 8, the Census Bureau will mail them a questionnaire.

By now, households should have received a postcard in the mail from the Census Bureau with a 12-digit census ID allowing them to log on to my2020census.gov and complete the 2020 Census. Individuals can also complete the census online without the 12-digit ID using their address.

To respond via phone, call (844) 330-2020. Households can also complete the census by phone without the 12-digit census ID.

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Once a 2020 Census questionnaire is filled out and mailed back to the Census Bureau, it will either go to Jeffersonville, Ind. or Tucson, Ariz.

All 2020 Census forms from households in Ohio will be mailed to the Jeffersonville center, Armstrong said.

“Everyone who works in those centers are sworn census employees,” Armstrong said.

All census employees are sworn to keep answers from the census secret for up to 70 years. Armstrong said all data compiled from the 2020 Census responses will be put into a “huge statistical summary,” meaning no one address or household’s response could be singled out from the census data.

To get help filling out the 2020 Census or to ask questions about the census, call (844) 330-2020, which is a toll free number.

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