–Current ‘Door-to-Door’ Phase May Involve Less Double Counting

By Ian Mckendry

WASHINGTON (MNI) – The 2010 Census “door-to-door” phase that
injects a spike of additional workers into the monthly jobs data is in
full swing with the peak hiring having occurred right around the survey
week for Friday’s report.

The U.S Census Bureau projects 1.4 million positions to be created
from the entirety of the Decennial 2010 Census operation — a number
that includes positions’ workers were hired for in prior years in
preparation for the 2010 Census. The U.S Census Bureau confirmed in
response to a Market News inquiry that the number of actual individual
workers hired is likely to be less than that figure because one single
worker may actually be hired for multiple positions.

However, the current “door-to-door” phase that contributes the
sharpest spike in hiring involves actual workers hired specifically to
ring doorbells.

According to the U.S Census Bureau some workers, more likely in
remote areas, Door-to-Door workers may hold multiple positions.

The Bureau breaks up its’ operations into multiple “phases” and May
marked the beginning of the Door-to-Door phase, when hiring peaks, as
census workers follow up on the approximately 48 million households that
did not mail-in Census forms.

According to the Census Bureau a worker may be hired for multiple
phases, maybe two or three, and that would then be recorded as two or
three positions counted — which would be included in the 1.4 million
positions created figure.

The U.S Census does not keep data on rate at which workers fill
multiple jobs.

The “door-to-door” phase is projected to end July 10, and the
Census Bureau said the number of positions people are hired for is
expected to decrease as that deadline approaches.

According to the Census Bureau the rate of decline depends on how
quickly the work is completed.

The most recent statistics released by the Census Bureau said
549,450 actual workers were paid in the third week of May, down 36,279
from the 2010 peak of 585,729 in the first week of May.

The Door-to-Door operational phase which began in May overlapped
with the Update/Enumerate phase which includes filtering out seasonally
occupied homes, and counting homes with irregular addresses. The
Update/Enumerate phase essentially ended May 29 according to the Census
Bureau.

The Door-to-Door phase will also overlap with the Vacant/Delete
phase which includes determining if a home is vacant, does not exist, or
occupied — that phase is to begin in July.

Neither the Update/Enumerate phase or the Vacant/Delete phase is
expected to employ as many people as the Door-to-Door phase.

The Census Bureau projected in April that it anticipates hiring a
total of around 635,000 positions in all for the Door-to-Door visits.

Overall the 2010 Census has had a good mail-in response rate which
may lessen the number of needed hires to take door-to-door tallies.

“America’s had a very successful first half of the 2010 Census,
where more than 72 percent of the nation’s households mailed back their
census forms,” U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said.

The 72 percent response rate matches that of the 2000 census.

A fact sheet released by the Census Bureau said 3.8 million workers
were recruited to fulfill positions in 2009 and 2010, and 1.4 million of
those were fingerprinted for security purposes.

Even if a potential census worker went through the security process
they are not guaranteed to be hired.

Groves is expected to release new Census statistics Wednesday at
noon during a media briefing.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

[TOPICS: M$U$$$,MAUDS$]