- Feb 12, 2007
- 59,734
- 24,694
- 2,290
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% ( http://2010.census.gov/2010census/ ), 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’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% ( http://2010.census.gov/2010census/ ), 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.
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