Two more Census workers blow the whistle

[MaggieMae]

Of course you wouldn't. It doesn't reinforce your twisted worldview.

For the those of us who pay attention to economics, it's been clear for some time that the Obama Administration has been manipulating the unemployment stats with temp census workers (as well as the doling out of stimulus funds to preserve public employee union jobs).

Oh baloney. The numbers are what they are, and can be verified in a number of places. The job situation is nowhere near as bleak as it was even a month ago. Is your cup consistently half empty or are you secretly hoping that the economy will remain in a rut so the Republicans can come riding in on their big white horses again and try the ol' trickle-down for the umpteenth time.

Here's the present employment analysis, overall and by sector. The second link discusses the numbers.

How jobs growth forecast was done - USATODAY.com

Jobless rates drop in 34 states and D.C. - USATODAY.com

 

[MaggieMae]

i would believe my own experiences however...and this is exactly what i am doing..checking the work of others....others who were less trained...its just a huge cluster fuck...even the ny post sees that....

Sorry. You mentioned something anti-Obama, so some people will naturally get upset and try to marginalize your sources.

And one can only imagine the shrieking if an article was linked to the New York Times regarding census workers. It wouldn't even be read by the righties.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

We have been getting horror stories from Bones for months now. And she is not a Republican stooge by any stretch of the imagination. I don't agree with her much. But I know I can trust her veracity.

I don't know if this is a deliberate scam on the numbers, or just absolute incompetence. I am inclined to believe the latter. It has been my observation from the get go that the 0bama people are mostly dangerous to themselves. Given their tendency toward National Socialist styles of governance, I am glad they seem so out of their depth.

From what we have been reading, Bones' stories are pretty much the norm. When folks talk about competence levels in two years, we will be referring back to this kind of thing

 

[MaggieMae]

If you ran on "Hope and Change" and unemployment was still in the toilet, wouldn't you play statistical tricks with the unemployment figures?

Only if I had wasted $787 BILLION on a phony stimulus plan that was supposed to keep unemployment below 8%.

What do you mean? He hasn't even spent most of that yet, it's set aside for the next few months. The propaganda for the recovering economy hasn't even started yet.

Is there ANY part of the mechanics of the stimulus that you people actually *get*??? Or is it more fun to just sit on your collective asses and think smartASS comments equal an intelligent grasp of the matter?

You can following the spending every day, by state if you wish, and actually READ some unbiased critiques on what has worked and what hasn't.

Eye on the Stimulus - ProPublica

 

[MaggieMae]

Two things still remain facts.

1. The Census jobs will come to an end before November.
2. The Census is not being conducted in an efficient manner. Cards in the mail telling you your Census is coming, training people and then not using them for very many hours and the like are not how you run a good business.

So you got all that from a few disgruntled ex-employees?

 

[rdean]

It takes a dumb person to make up such a stupid scam. But it takes a fucking moron to believe it could succeed.

 

[MaggieMae]

To quote myself on Census Productivity:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/current-events/116209-census-productivity.html

The Census just added 600,000 more workers for the door to door count.

I’ve discovered that many of our new enumerators, working on the Nonresponse Followup activities of the 2010 Census, are Facebook fans or have looked at my blog, so this is a message to them:

Welcome to the 2010 Census!

You are the heart of the operations for the second half of the census. To everyone you meet as an enumerator, you are also the face of the US Federal government. It’s a big responsibility; you must treat everyone with respect, even though not everyone will treat you with similar respect.

Our “customers” are those who have not yet been counted. You’ll probably meet some people with very little understanding of the census, and some with very deep understanding. Each person will have their own perspective on what we’re asking of them. Listening to what they have to say is an important step for you to effectively communicate our message to them.

You’re probably working in neighborhoods around your own home, but may have assignments in parts that aren’t as familiar to you. One of the interesting things in the job is meeting people you ordinarily would not know. It’s an adventure; remember to enjoy that part of the job.

We are relying on you – to make sure we count everyone once and only once and in the right place. We are asking about the April 1, 2010, composition of the houses you visit. You’ll probably find some complicated situations that aren’t easy applications of the training guidelines. Ask for help when you need it, to make sure we get things right.

According to the Census website, the total field operations for the Census consists of 1.2M people.

Math:

There are approx. 113M households in the U.S. The response rate on the census was 72% ( 2010 Census ), which means 31.6M households need to be visited.

With 1.2M field operations staff, that comes to 26 households to visit person, or 52 if working in teams of two. The door-door phase goes from May through July, 3 months. Assuming 60 workdays (which is what a normal person would work during this time)...well, let's lower it to 52, that means only 1 household visit per team per day.

I don't get it. I suspect there is a minority of Census workers who are quite busy (at least a couple of them are USMB members) while a bunch of them are doing nothing. My guesstimate is that the census is overstaffed by a factor of at least 3X.

I don't get why you're making such a huge deal out of how many temp workers there are. The number was equally as high in 2000, maybe higher. Why wasn't this such a big fucking deal then? Nevermind...Obama wasn't the president, that's why. The evil census thing is just one more of his big manipulative moves for a New World Order. (Yes, stretching it, but you get my gist.)

Census 2000 Fast Facts - US Government Info Resources

How Big a Deal is Census 2000?

About 275 million U.S. residents are to be counted.
About 118 million housing units in the U.S. alone must be counted.
Another 1.5 million housing units in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Island areas must be counted.
From 8 to 9 million blocks to be covered by census workers in the field.
The Census Bureau will recruit more than 3 million full and part time employees for Census 2000.
At its peak, Census 2000 will generate more than 860,000 jobs. During one year, census workers will set up and dismantle about 520 local area networks, 7,800 personal computers, and 2,600 printers.
More than 20 million detailed maps will be needed for field work.
From 40 - 70 million questionnaires will be returned during the peak two-week period of Census 2000.

 

[MaggieMae]

We have been getting horror stories from Bones for months now. And she is not a Republican stooge by any stretch of the imagination. I don't agree with her much. But I know I can trust her veracity.

I don't know if this is a deliberate scam on the numbers, or just absolute incompetence. I am inclined to believe the latter. It has been my observation from the get go that the 0bama people are mostly dangerous to themselves. Given their tendency toward National Socialist styles of governance, I am glad they seem so out of their depth.

From what we have been reading, Bones' stories are pretty much the norm. When folks talk about competence levels in two years, we will be referring back to this kind of thing

Since the census has been taken every ten years for a century now, the system is already in place for how it is conducted, adding of course computerized capabilities. For people to be getting their asses in the air THIS YEAR is simply ludicrous. Will it be perfectly run? Of course not. Will the results be perfect? Hopefully better than in 2000 when there were huge gaps in the total count.

 

[saveliberty]

Two things still remain facts.

1. The Census jobs will come to an end before November.
2. The Census is not being conducted in an efficient manner. Cards in the mail telling you your Census is coming, training people and then not using them for very many hours and the like are not how you run a good business.

So you got all that from a few disgruntled ex-employees?

Not entirely. You expect the Census to take beyond November? Please, expouind on your knowledge of why that will be and your credible sources.

Just look at the math ratio of workers to those they need to contact. Pretty sad and it defines inefficiency. There are multiple sources outside our little group here and they all say the same thing. So... I conclude that you choose to be a hack and partisan. Did I mention is was Obama's fault? No I did not, so get over it.

 

[Intense]

i woudln't believe the ny post if it's papers were notarized. lol.

That's how I feel about the NY Times!

 

[Queen]

I'm working for the census, door to door counting people. And most of this is bullshit. Just more wacked out ridiculousness from the right wing haters.

 

[Queen]

Two things still remain facts.

1. The Census jobs will come to an end before November.
2. The Census is not being conducted in an efficient manner. Cards in the mail telling you your Census is coming, training people and then not using them for very many hours and the like are not how you run a good business.

They only fire the people who are claiming lots of hours and not turning in very many forms. those of us who are working hard, we keep our jobs till the census is done. We're trying to finish it up by next week. At least by the week after....

 

[PubliusInfinitum]

stuff left out

But first, this much we know.

Each month Census gives Labor a figure on the number of workers it has hired. That figure goes into the closely followed monthly employment report Labor provides. For the past two months the hiring by Census has made up a good portion of the new jobs.

Labor doesn't check the Census hiring figure or whether the jobs are actually new or recycled. It considers a new job to have been created if someone is hired to work at least one hour a month.

One hour! A month! So, if a worker is terminated after only one hour and another is hired in her place, then a second new job can apparently be reported to Labor . (I've been unable to get Census to explain this to me.)

Here's a note from a Census worker -- this one from Manhattan:

"John: I am on my fourth rehire with the 2010 Census.

"I have been hired, trained for a week, given a few hours of work, then laid off. So my unemployed self now counts for four new jobs.

"I have been paid more to train all four times than I have been paid to actually produce results. These are my tax dollars and your tax dollars at work.

"A few months ago I was trained for three days and offered five hours of work counting the homeless. Now, I am knocking (on) doors trying to find the people that have not returned their Census forms. I worked the 2000 Census. It was a far more organized venture.

"Have to run and meet my crew leader, even though with this rain I did not work today. So I can put in a pay sheet for the hour or hour and a half this meeting will take. Sincerely, C.M."

And here's another:

"John: I worked for (Census) and I was paid $18.75 (an hour) just like Ms. Naomi Cohn from your article.

"I worked for about six weeks or so and I picked the hours I wanted to work. I was checking the work of others. While I was classifying addresses, another junior supervisor was checking my work.

"In short, we had a "checkers checking checkers" quality control. I was eventually let go and was told all the work was finished when, in fact, other people were being trained for the same assignment(s).

"I was re-hired about eight months later and was informed that I would have to go through one week of additional training.

"On the third day of training, I got sick and visited my doctor. I called my supervisor and asked how I can make up the class. She informed me that I was 'terminated.' She elaborated that she had to terminate three other people for being five minutes late to class.

"I did get two days' pay and I am sure the 'late people' got paid also. I think you would concur that this is an expensive way to attempt to control sickness plus lateness. I am totally convinced that the Census work could be very easily done by the US Postal Service.

"When I was trying to look for an address or had a question about a building, I would ask the postman on the beat. They knew the history of the route and can expand in detail who moved in or out etc. I have found it interesting that if someone works one hour, they are included in the labor statistics as a new job being full.

"I am not surprised that you can't get any answers from Census staff; I found there were very few people who knew the big picture. M.G."



Read more: Two more Census workers blow the whistle - NYPOST.com




Read more: Two more Census workers blow the whistle - NYPOST.com


this is something people should be raising hell about...not refusing to return the forms but questioning all this money etc...i have been rehired 3 times.....i dont think i have worked a total of 50 hours in all 3 of them....i have not worked one minute since the last training....

ROFLMNAO...

Deceit and Fraud... OKA: Progressivism.

Great Article Bones.

 

[PubliusInfinitum]

I'm working for the census, door to door counting people. And most of this is bullshit. Just more wacked out ridiculousness from the right wing haters.

ROFLMNAO!

Precious...

 

[saveliberty]

Two things still remain facts.

1. The Census jobs will come to an end before November.
2. The Census is not being conducted in an efficient manner. Cards in the mail telling you your Census is coming, training people and then not using them for very many hours and the like are not how you run a good business.

They only fire the people who are claiming lots of hours and not turning in very many forms. those of us who are working hard, we keep our jobs till the census is done. We're trying to finish it up by next week. At least by the week after....

So your confirming my first statement and ignoring the the second. I didn't mention anything about firing a soul. Surprised you could put the words work and hard in the same sentence.

 

[MaggieMae]

Two things still remain facts.

1. The Census jobs will come to an end before November.
2. The Census is not being conducted in an efficient manner. Cards in the mail telling you your Census is coming, training people and then not using them for very many hours and the like are not how you run a good business.

So you got all that from a few disgruntled ex-employees?

Not entirely. You expect the Census to take beyond November? Please, expouind on your knowledge of why that will be and your credible sources.

Just look at the math ratio of workers to those they need to contact. Pretty sad and it defines inefficiency. There are multiple sources outside our little group here and they all say the same thing. So... I conclude that you choose to be a hack and partisan. Did I mention is was Obama's fault? No I did not, so get over it.

Did you miss the little factoid I put up about the 2000 Census? It's a huge undertaking, always has been. But in the past there has been little criticism. This time there is an ENORMOUS amount of criticism. What else is there to conclude other than the right wing noise machine will jump on the smallest mistake over ANYTHING, blast it out to their eager Obama-haters, and it then becomes viral. Just as this census bullshit has. Of course I'm partisan. You're not? But a "hack"????? Nope, just keeping it honest.

 

[MaggieMae]

I'm working for the census, door to door counting people. And most of this is bullshit. Just more wacked out ridiculousness from the right wing haters.

ROFLMNAO!

Precious...

You seem to spend an inordinate amount of time rolling on the floor laughing your naked ass off. What shall we conclude from that picture?

 

[Baruch Menachem]

I worked the 1980 census. They were on the ball (Amazing thing to say about the Carter administration, but true) There was none of the garbage that Bones is talking about here.

This is 20 levels of farce I never saw back in 1980. And the questions were a lot more invasive back then too.

People are a lot more worried about how the government is going to use the information.

This is not the right wing noise machine. this is concerned citizens (Even lefty citizens like bones) who don't like the idea of the nation being scammed 57 different ways.

Queens experience seems to be the exception, where it should be the rule.

I have a friend in Seattle who is reporting the same kind of thing Bones is talking about.

 

[saveliberty]

So you got all that from a few disgruntled ex-employees?

Not entirely. You expect the Census to take beyond November? Please, expouind on your knowledge of why that will be and your credible sources.

Just look at the math ratio of workers to those they need to contact. Pretty sad and it defines inefficiency. There are multiple sources outside our little group here and they all say the same thing. So... I conclude that you choose to be a hack and partisan. Did I mention is was Obama's fault? No I did not, so get over it.

Did you miss the little factoid I put up about the 2000 Census? It's a huge undertaking, always has been. But in the past there has been little criticism. This time there is an ENORMOUS amount of criticism. What else is there to conclude other than the right wing noise machine will jump on the smallest mistake over ANYTHING, blast it out to their eager Obama-haters, and it then becomes viral. Just as this census bullshit has. Of course I'm partisan. You're not? But a "hack"????? Nope, just keeping it honest.

Consider the hack comment retracted MaggieMae. You are focusing the criticism as at Obama directly. I think a large measure of it is at the federal government in general. This particular government exercise gives people an opportunity to vent. That is a good thing in my opinion. I'd much rather see a little battle over the Census than some larger physical confrontation.

 

[MaggieMae]

Not entirely. You expect the Census to take beyond November? Please, expouind on your knowledge of why that will be and your credible sources.

Just look at the math ratio of workers to those they need to contact. Pretty sad and it defines inefficiency. There are multiple sources outside our little group here and they all say the same thing. So... I conclude that you choose to be a hack and partisan. Did I mention is was Obama's fault? No I did not, so get over it.

Did you miss the little factoid I put up about the 2000 Census? It's a huge undertaking, always has been. But in the past there has been little criticism. This time there is an ENORMOUS amount of criticism. What else is there to conclude other than the right wing noise machine will jump on the smallest mistake over ANYTHING, blast it out to their eager Obama-haters, and it then becomes viral. Just as this census bullshit has. Of course I'm partisan. You're not? But a "hack"????? Nope, just keeping it honest.

Consider the hack comment retracted MaggieMae. You are focusing the criticism as at Obama directly. I think a large measure of it is at the federal government in general. This particular government exercise gives people an opportunity to vent. That is a good thing in my opinion. I'd much rather see a little battle over the Census than some larger physical confrontation.

Well I see part of the ongoing polarization of the American people is that there's too much "venting" over the small stuff. That of course can be blamed on 24/7 talking heads creating huge inflagrations where none would exist if they would stop lighting small fires.