How to Apply for a Census Taker Job
Every ten years, the United States Census Bureau conducts a national census. This allows the bureau to establish how many people live in the United States and what their household compositions are. Census data is influential because it affects how federal funding is distributed and the composition of US congressional districts in each state. The Census Bureau hires hundreds of thousands of people to help conduct the census. There are a number of different jobs available through the bureau, but one of the main jobs is that of census taker. The census taker goes to any homes that have not returned the census questionnaire to ask the necessary questions.
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Things You'll Need
- Local census office phone number or location
- Census taker application
- Identification
- I-9 Form
Instructions
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Find the phone number or address for your local census office. The Census Bureau has offices throughout the United States. You can find your local office on the Census Bureau's website.
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Call your local office and set up an appointment to take the employment test. You must pass the employment test to work as a census taker. The employment test is a multiple choice test with reading, math and map reading skills. In peak hiring times, census offices will frequently have testing dates set up and will broadcast those through local media.
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3
Fill out a census taker application. You can download the application from the Census Bureau's website.
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Bring your application, some form of identification such as a driver's license, passport or military ID and an I-9 form, which verifies that you are eligible for employment, to the test site. You can find an I-9 form on the website of the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Most census offices will also have I-9 forms available.
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Complete the employment test. The local census office will call and offer you a census taker job if you are qualified.
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Tips & Warnings
Census takers are paid a different hourly wage depending on where you work. You can find out how much you would make in your state by going to the Census Bureau's website.
