Few on Westside Applying for Census-Taker Jobs

The U.S. government is looking for a few good men and women to sign up as census takers on the Westside. So far, the task has not been easy.

The Westside, it seems, is simply too affluent to provide an adequate crop of people willing to go door-to-door as enumerators for $7.50 an hour.

“In places like Bel-Air and Beverly Hills, people don’t necessarily need a job,” said Barbara Keller, the Census Bureau’s Southern California recruiting coordinator.

Keller said census officials look for enumerators who know the neighborhood they are working. In areas where few people want to sign up, it’s a problem.

Dorothy Chilkov, recruiting coordinator in the Santa Monica office, which oversees most of the Westside, said that about 1,500 prospective census takers on the Westside have applied for the job so far.

Census officials estimate that they need a Westside applicant pool of about 5,000 to ensure that they end up with 800 to 900 qualified enumerators to cover the area during the two-month count, which starts April 1. Keller said the attrition rate for enumerators is high--both before they start work and after the census is under way. Some find permanent employment, she said, and others drop out because they do not like the work.

“In past census-takings, we have depended on housewives,” said Chilkov. “But they have all gone out to work in the past 10 years and are not available, so it has been more difficult to recruit.”

In response, Census officials have launched a vigorous recruiting campaign, sending representatives to colleges, malls, supermarkets and meetings of clubs and organizations. If the recruiters decide their offer of money is falling upon the deaf ears of the well-to-do, they sometimes invoke the noble causes of patriotism and charity.

“It is one way of recruiting in an upper socioeconomic area,” said Chilkov, who said she addressed the League of Women Voters in Beverly Hills Monday night, urging the members to get involved for the sake of the country.

Chilkov said the tactic has worked; members of some charity organizations have volunteered their services, agreeing to donate their wages to their group.

Where 1980 census-takers were paid by the census form, this year’s workers are being paid an hourly wage of $7.50, with crew leaders making $8.50.

In all, Census officials are seeking 300,000 people throughout the United States to work full time or part time for up to two months. Applicants must be 18 or older, and U.S. citizens or legal U.S. residents.