Government Can't Fill Census Jobs Despite High Unemployment

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - Despite the recession and double-digit unemployment, failed background checks, disinterest and other factors are making it difficult for the Census Bureau to fill jobs that pay $15 to $22.75, USA Today reports.

"Some will come to the recruiting session and leave," Bruce Kaminski, census deputy regional director for the Boston region, told the newspaper. "Some people will show up for training and not show up the second day."

There's a host of reasons census jobs are being left vacant across the country. Some hopefuls fail background checks; others simply aren't qualified to do the job. In upscale areas, people just don't need the work.

"In professional neighborhoods, the recession didn't really hit yet," Kaminski told USA Today . "Doctors are still employed. Lawyers are still employed."

In some cases, language barriers limit the hiring pool. Applicants are plentiful on the south side of Hartford, Conn., but the not candidates who can speak the needed languages of Polish, Russian, Urdu, Hindi, Korean and Vietnamese. Meanwhile, across town in an upscale area, census officials can't find enough people who need the jobs that pay $15 to $22.75 an hour.

Mekonnan Simore, 34, has been an out-of-work cab driver in Washington, D.C. for nearly a year, according to the Financial Times .

He's hopeful he will get a census job that would pay him $20 an hour in a city with a 12.1 percent unemployment rate.

"I've got thousands in debt and I'm looking hard for work,” Simore told the Financial Times . "It's brutal out here. No one is hiring.”

By the end of April, the Census Bureau needs 3.8 million people in its pool of eligible workers. Far more applicants are needed to apply for each job because some fail to qualify.

Some 56,000 census workers started delivering the questionnaires this week to 12 million homes.

Individuals interested in working for the census can get helpful information at http://2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs/how-to-apply/ .