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United States News Title: Foot soldiers for census ease jobless rate (U-3 held lower only due to Govt. make work jobs) Foot soldiers for census ease jobless rate By Kevin Sieff in Washington Published: March 4 2010 19:59 | Last updated: March 4 2010 19:59 Mekonnan Simore has been searching for work in Washington since losing his job as a cab driver almost a year ago. In a city with a 12.1 per cent unemployment rate it has been tough going for the 34-year-old, who moved to the US from Ethiopia when he was a child. “I’ve got thousands in debt and I’m looking hard for work,” Mr Simore says. “It’s brutal out here. No one is hiring.” EDITOR’S CHOICE Labour woes restrict US recovery - Mar-04 Short View: Jobs data full of sound and fury - Mar-04 US jobless claims decline more than expected - Mar-04 Video: State of US recovery - Mar-03 Private sector job cuts fall to two-year low - Mar-03 FT Series: Searching for an exit - Mar-03 But for the first time in months Mr Simore is optimistic on his job prospects. He applied for a job with the US Census Bureau, which is hiring 1.2m workers to carry out its decennial population count on April 1. The job, which pays $20 (€14.30, £13.30) an hour, would make Mr Simore a foot soldier in the largest civilian mobilisation of workers in US history – an effort likely to give a temporary boost to a battered jobs market. The census could not come at a better time, economists say, with official data out on Friday expected to confirm that the national unemployment rate hovers just below 10 per cent. “This particular programme is a booster shot to hiring activity during a very critical third quarter,” says John Lonski, chief economist at Moody’s capital markets group. “We expect that private sector hiring will pick up by June or July, but this is the right time for what could be seen as a small-scale stimulus package.” Because the temporary workers are expected to be cash-constrained, Mr Lonski says, they are likely to spend their salaries quickly, injecting several billion dollars into the economy. The government will spend $14bn over the lifetime of the once-a-decade census, which will determine congressional representation and the distribution of more than $400bn a year in federal aid. Funding from both Congress and last year’s stimulus bill provided enough money to hire twice as many census employees as in 2000. The survey has historically provided a lift to employment, increasing the number of Americans on the government’s payroll by more than 20 per cent in 2000. But the sluggish job market – and the increased scale of the survey effort – means the gains are likely to be more pronounced this year. “With the unemployment rate expected to be well above those witnessed during the previous census,” says the commerce department, “the effect of large changes in temporary 2010 census employment on the unemployment rate may be more noticeable in 2010.” The hiring spree has recently elicited accusations of waste. An audit last month from the commerce department’s inspector-general noted that thousands of workers hired last year for temporary posts by the Census Bureau were trained and paid but never worked for the agency. “We believe this was due to the economic downturn and have adjusted our recruitment and retention projections,” said Malkia McLeod, spokeswoman. Some say the unprecedented census mobilisation is politically motivated – designed to maximise the count of Democratic-leaning poor and minority citizens and to create voting districts that artificially lean to the left. This perception was reinforced last year when the Obama administration announced that the Census Bureau would work directly with the White House. Republicans quickly responded by calling the move a “political land grab”, contributing to the decision by Judd Gregg, a Republican senator, to withdraw his nomination as commerce secretary last February. Mr Simore has just passed a 28-question exam, bringing him closer to what would be the best paid job he has ever had. “For us, these jobs are like gold. Twenty dollars an hour guaranteed, it couldn’t come at a better time,” he says.
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