The U.S. Census Bureau is still hiring census takers in Pike County to help complete the 2010 census.

Johnny Gibson, the 2010 census recruiter for the county, previously said the number of employees that will be needed is contingent on the response the census bureau sees.

“We won’t know how many census takers will be needed until after the census forms have been mailed,” Gibson said. “But these will be good temporary jobs.”

Census takers, also called enumerators, will conduct personal interviews of residents who fail to return the questionnaires sent out by the U.S. Census Bureau.

According to the bureau, these temporary employees will be required to work flexible evenings and/or weekends when the public is typically home.

The Census 2010 website shows that census takers near Montgomery can expect to earn $12.25 per hour along with paid training and mileage.

Marsha Gaylard, president of the Pike County Economic Development Corporation, said that enumerators hold an important responsibility.

“The census is important to accounting in many different ways,” she said. “We give that information out as demographics to industries and especially retailers.”

Those organizations can use the information to decide if Pike County is a place they would like to call home and eventually come to offer jobs and their services.

“When we’re trying to get grants, we fall into categories,” Gaylard further explained. “We can score higher when applying for grant funds if we can show we’re in a low-income area for instance.”

Census takers are an integral part of reporting all those statistics accurately.

The U.S. Census Bureau does the majority of its hiring between February and May.

“To qualify as a census-taker, you must be a United States citizen and must be a legal permanent resident or a non-citizen with an appropriate work visa plus possess a bilingual skill for which there are no available qualified U.S. citizens,” Gibson told The Messenger previously.

Local residents interested in applying for a position with the U.S. Census Bureau should call (334) 408-3180. There, the potential employee will be directed to schedule a time to take a 30-minute test containing 28 multiple-choice questions that will measure the applicants’ ability to perform the duties of an enumerator. If the candidate passes the test and advances through the interviewing process, they can expect to soon be working within their own community.