Unemployed? Underemployed? Just need new friends? If you can count, the U.S. Census wants you
I (heart) the Founding Fathers! Along with inventing our government and protecting freedom of speech and trial by jury, they also decided to count everyone who lives here, every ten years. Back then, there were fewer people to count — the population was just 3.9 million in 1790 — but going door-to-door on horseback wasn’t that fun either. (The population per square mile was just 4.5! Today it’s 80!)
In the intervening 220 years, counting the U.S. population has become a big production. This spring could be The Biggest Census Ever, and the Census Bureau needs you — and hundreds of thousands of other people — to help. There's an application process, and also a test. (Sample Q: Ms. Jones can’t remember the year of her birth but she knows that she was born in the month of September. If it is now May 2010, and Ms. Jones tells you she is 78 years old, in what year was she born?)
The money’s not bad either, depending on where you live: hourly wages start at $10.50 in parts of Texas but hit $22 in California. For more information, visit 2010censusjobs.gov. But if you run into Christopher Walken, don’t say you weren’t warned.
