San Marcos — How does a short-term job paying anywhere between $9 and $26 per hour sound?
The U.S. Census Bureau may be hiring hundreds of students who can help complete Census work by July of 2010. The average hourly income in the area is $14 an hour.
It is a short-term job with long-term results, thus the 2010 Census offers competitive wages and flexible schedules.
Sophia Azoubel, an area partner with the Census Bureau, said her agency prides itself on hiring people from local communities.
“Actually, jobs are available now until July,” Azoubel said. “Some are 15 to 20 hours and others are full-time (40 hours a week).” She said the Census Bureau can be flexible with hours to accommodate students and others.
Census officials in the regional office in Dallas said the number of Census employees working in the San Marcos area could number “in the hundreds,” depending on various factors; and the number of workers in a four-county area will be roughly 2,000. San Marcos is part of a North San Antonio office that oversees the Census in that part of the Alamo City and the following counties: Hays, Comal, Guadalupe and Caldwell.
Students could expect to everything from working in a Questionnaire Assistance Center to going working “nonresponse followup” from households that failed to mail-in the survey by April 1.
The process to getting a Census job is easy. Azoubel said individuals should begin by calling the toll free Census job line (866) 861-2010) and follow the prompts to get routed to the local census office.
Tests are held at least once weekly and sometimes more often, depending on the number of applicants. The test dates on campus are from 5 to 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 12; 5 to 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 26; and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27. All tests will be given at the LBJ Student Center, Room 3-4.1. Census officials said tests are also given at the San Marcos Public Library. Applicants will have the option to take the test in nearby communities such as New Braunfels.
Candidates will be scheduled to take a skills test, which consists of 30 questions and must be completed in 30 minutes. “The test is fairly easy,” Azoubel said. “The higher the score the greater likelihood that they’ll get hired.”
Workers will be reimbursed for mileage at the usual 50-plus cents per mile rate and get paid for training.
In many areas the Census Bureau will need to hire some people who are bilingual.
Most available positions require U.S. citizenship, a driver’s license and the use of a vehicle. Each applicant also will undergo a background check.
The Census Bureau is hiring about 84,000 workers to conduct the census in Texas. The Dallas Regional Census Center is expected to hire about 111,000 workers to complete its task in its region, which includes Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
