Census Welcomes Nearly 1 Million Temporary Workers with New Safety Protocol

The Census Bureau has made adjustments to its 2020 Decennial Census operations in order to ensure the count occurs without risking the safety and wellbeing of the employees enumerating the American public. To get the count started, the Census Bureau announced this week that the agency has hired some 900,000 temporary employees to conduct in person confirmations of addresses.

While the Census Bureau had to delay several timelines relating to in-person activities for the 2020 Decennial Census, the bureau has now largely completed its online and mail processes and is preparing for the in-person counting.  In person counting, usually done by having census employees visit the homes of individuals who failed to respond to census questionnaires online, by phone, or by mail, requires the agency to hire a significant number of temporary employees.

According to reports by GovExec, which spoke with Tim Olson, the bureau’s associate director for field operations, as the bureau released hiring numbers this week, more than 900,000 applicants have accepted job offers from the Census Bureau. Nearly 80% of those applicants have already provided fingerprints, and 500,000 have passed their background checks and are ready to begin working. The bureau expects to need 500,000 temporary employees to carry out its in-person counts but plans to hire more employees than necessary, particularly as a large number of applicants- nearly one-third- fall into an older age range which places them at a high risk for severe illness for COVID-19.

Hired employees will be subject to new rules such as being required to wear a mask during any public interactions regardless of location. According to Olson, he bureau has acquired 40 million items of PPE, including 2.4 million masks, 14.4 million individual gloves, 3.6 million individual hand sanitizer bottles and other supplies. Those supplies are being distributed to all 248 area offices.

Most of the temporary employees will being training on July 31 and start their work on August 11. Several thousand employees began their trainings this week as part of a “soft roll-out” of in-person counts beginning on July 23.

Olson also told GovExec that the Census Bureau aims for every employee to have PPE and a mandate to socially distance during interactions. Employees can expect to receive a PPE kit including “a number” of reusable, washable masks, gloves and hand sanitizer bottles to last during their four-to-eight-week service with the bureau.

While the covid-19 pandemic caused many delays for the census and the Government Accountability Office has expressed concern about the bureau’s ability to meet certain hiring deadlines, Olson noted that the increase in telework can be a good thing for ensure everyone is counted, as “it will make the opportunity to reach them much easier, so that would be a positive.”