Unemployed Professionals Vie for Census Jobs

Applicant pool for 2010 temp jobs is unusually qualified
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 5, 2010 5:32 PM CST
Unemployed Professionals Vie for Census Jobs
K'Treana Taylor, 2, eats a hot dog at a community resource fair Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010, in Galveston, Texas, to explain to people the importance of participating in the 2010 Census. An accurate census count is particularly important to the island city ravaged by Hurricane Ike.   (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

For the Census Bureau, the recession is good news: With unemployment near 10%, professionals with advanced degrees are applying for temporary census jobs in droves. The bureau will hire at least 700,000 people in the spring and summer to make house calls on census laggards and perform organizational tasks. The applicant pool is strikingly different than the one in 2000, when record-low unemployment meant workers ended up being mostly retirees.

"This time around it's a new ballgame," a bureau hiring specialist tells the Washington Post. "We're seeing professionals, with advanced degrees, taking temporary jobs part time. It's incredible."
(More 2010 census stories.)

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