Despite Increasing Pay to $27/Hour in Montgomery County, Census Bureau Still Can’t Recruit Census Workers

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Tricia Reedy Jones (center) is a Partnership Specialist for Philadelphia Regional Census Center. She came to Royersford for a recruitment information session for census takers on Jan. 4, 2020. Despite Increasing Pay to $27/Hour in Montgomery County, Census Bureau Still Finding It Difficult To Recruit Census Workers. Image via WHYY.

Despite bumping the pay to $27 per hour in Montgomery County, the U.S. Census Bureau is still finding it difficult to recruit census workers, writes Ximena Conde for the WHYY.

During a recruitment event in Royersford this weekend, Dennis Martello, recruitment assistant tasked to Montgomery County, informed the attendees that the Census Bureau already received around 5,000 applications. However, it still needed about 3,000 more people to apply.

He emphasized that there are not 8,000 jobs available in the county, but it is necessary to over-recruit because people tend to drop out.

And while the financial incentive for the jobs is dampened by the strong economy, potential applicants also cite personal safety and ethical concerns regarding data security as additional reservations for accepting a position.

“If we get inaccurate or incomplete census information, then the federal money that should be coming to our local areas — especially for school services, roads, jobs — will be incomplete,” said Lesley Ewing, who was at the event to learn about the enumerator position. “We won’t be getting the federal money we should be getting according to our population.”

Read more about the issue at the WHYY by clicking here.

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