Census takers needed

Friday, Dec. 10, 1999 | 4:15 a.m.

Interested in a job with the Census Bureau? Call 567-0900.

Thousands of federal employees will soon start fanning out through the Las Vegas Valley, joining their counterparts in a national effort to count every living soul in the country.

You could be one of them. The federal Census Bureau has launched its biggest effort ever to hire and train workers to collect the basic information that the government uses to allocate federal funding and determine the number of representatives in Congress.

In a promotional blitz, the U.S. Census Bureau is emphasizing not just the importance of the final numbers but that just about anybody can do the work. The bureau is trying to make it easy for everyone.

Applicants to work for the census need to pass a relatively easy test, but that is about the only major hurdle to pass, said Val Gonzalez, a census recruiting assistant in the bureau's Henderson office.

The census will offer the half-hour test at different times and places all over the Las Vegas Valley in an effort to "place them as close to home as possible," he said.

Potential census-gatherers will go through one to five days of paid training, he said. While most workers will be in the field, the bureau also needs some office workers, Gonzalez said.

He stressed that people with physical disabilities, of all ethnic backgrounds, and of any age are welcome to apply. People can work part-time or full-time during the counting process, which gears up for the most intensive effort in March.

"We're looking for all kinds of people," Gonzalez said. The bureau is particularly looking for people who speak different languages, he added. David Hoggard Jr., manager of the Las Vegas Census Office, said census gatherers can work many different hours, weekends, evenings, during the day or night. They will essentially ask simple questions such as the number of people living in a home.

All the information gathered is confidential by federal law and cannot be used for any other purpose than getting a true picture of the American population.

"We need people seven days a week," Gonzalez said. "We're trying to get as many workers as we can and trying to be as accommodating as we can." Census officials are billing the job as a good second income-at about $10 an hour, plus 31 cents a mile for transportation-and as a part-time job for seniors, students and others.

But Hoggard said working for the census can also be a good item on a resume for those entering the job market.

The census needs to hire about 2,500 people regionally and 3,500 for the whole state, Hoggard said. The bureau expects to test 12,000 to 15,000 applicants.

Training, which can take one to five days, should begin within the next two months, officials said.

For Southern Nevada, the census is particularly important-an accurate count would mean millions more in federal tax dollars returned to the region, and increased political representation in Carson City and Washington, D.C. If the census reflects the numbers that are expected, Clark County will control more than two-thirds of the seats in the Legislature, enough to override a governor's veto.

In Washington, the new count should give Southern Nevada at least one more seat in Congress. Las Vegas now has one federal representative from Henderson and Las Vegas and another for the rest of the state; the additional congressman or congressmen would likely be from the south part of the state, which is growing the quickest.

For local government officials, the census can mean a big difference in the bottom line. Over the last decade since the last census, the state has lost $200 million in federal money, federal and state officials estimate.

That is because Nevada was the sixth-worst state in the country for under-counting during the census, missing about 30,000 residents.

A big part of the problem in the 1990 census was that a lot of Nevadans didn't mail back the census form. Only half mailed the form back, compared to a national average of 85 percent.

To find out when and where the Census Bureau will conduct its next test for potential census gatherers, call 567-0900.