ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – The U.S. Census Bureau said it has reached its goal of recruiting more than 2.6 million applicants for the once-a-decade head count that launched for most of America this week – but it has been a bumpy road getting there.
The nation’s abundance of jobs has complicated the effort, and some rural areas – particularly in New England, Appalachia and some Rocky Mountain states – are falling behind recruitment goals as the agency works to hire up to a half-million temporary workers before May. Falling short could threaten the count in some parts of the country, which in turn could lead to underrepresentation in Congress and less federal funding.
An analysis by The Associated Press shows how low unemployment has affected the bureau’s ability to attract workers, with urban counties, especially large ones, more likely to hit recruitment goals than rural areas. The bureau has yet to account for how hiring could be affected by novel coronavirus concerns. The virus may dampen workers’ enthusiasm for going door to door, but it could also create a new application pool of workers who have been laid off.
While the bureau has reached its recruiting goal nationally, hiring has varied widely from place to place. States with populations concentrated in large metro areas – Georgia, Illinois, Maryland and Nevada – have overrecruited. Mostly rural states with high numbers of older residents – Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire and West Virginia – are well below recruitment goals.
If the bureau can’t find enough applicants in those areas, “it may have difficulty hiring enough staff to complete upcoming operations, leading to delays, increased costs and eroded data quality,” J. Christopher Mihm of the Government Accountability Office said during a congressional hearing last month.