Federal officials are having a much harder time than anticipated hiring people in some areas of Kentucky for census worker positions.
A five state region that includes Kentucky is looking for 11,000 temporary workers and although there have been a decent number of census applicants in some areas, the areas of Eastern and southern Kentucky have seen very few applicant’s coming in who would like the work.
Census officials have said that the low numbers of applications could be due to the fact that people who are on public assistance could be worried that taking a temporary job with the Census Bureau could impede the benefits they receive.
Wayne Hatcher, the US Census Bureau Director states this is not true. That there are agreements in place where individuals receiving food stamps or housing assistance will not lose public assistance if they take on the temporary work with the Census Bureau.
The same holds true for those on unemployment. Larry Brannock, the communications officer for the state’s Office of Employment and training said that most people who receive unemployment benefits may take census jobs without losing those benefits.
The census strives to hire individuals to work in their own neighborhoods and the heaviest of workloads will be late April to early July. Some of the jobs will last a few weeks and some a few months. There are full time positions but more are part time jobs.
The starting pay for door-to-door workers varies around Kentucky. In southern and Eastern Kentucky, the pay is $10.75 an hour, while it’s $13.75 in Lexington and $15 in Louisville. Workers also will be reimbursed for mileage.
