census enumerator

field representative

statistician

field supervisor

interviewer

U.S. Department of Commerce

The pay for doing Census work is excellent. At $29.50 per hour the pay couldn't get better. However, beyond the pay is where things are not so good. If you are fortunate enough to get a good manager who has integrity and common sense this job might not be so bad.

 However, for those of us in Zone 6 in the Chicagoland area this was not the case. Our manager was a bully who liked to dangle the $29.50 per hour over our heads like a carrot. She was very rude and oppressive and on occasion would refuse to approve time for the hours we worked. 

From the very beginning all Census managers will continually remind you of how you will be fired if you work so much as one minute of overtime. Yes really. If you work one minute of overtime you will be fired. Towards the end my supervisor sent out a group text encouraging me and my team members to work the maximum amount of hours which was 8, because we were running behind schedule.

 On this particular day, instead of working my usual 6-7 hours I worked 8 hours which was a big mistake. Despite exceeding the expected production of closed cases by 33% for the day and knocking on over 80 doors/doorbells, The next day I received a call from my supervisor ranting and raving about she was not going to approve the 8 hours I had worked. She stated that her records showed that I only closed out 4 cases and demanded that I look up the previous days record on my phone and tell her exactly how many homes I visited and how many cases I closed. She said she had the information on her end but wanted me to tell her what my records showed. I tried explaining to her that the all previous data on enumerators phones are permanently erased from our phones when we re-synchronize our phones in the morning as required. This fact changed nothing as she continued to rant and raved about how I was trying to "PLAY HER." She told me that she did not care and if I did not get her the information she requested that I would not get paid and then proceeded to hang up on me. By now I am thinking to myself" "This chick has lost her mind."  I called her back and tried reasoning with her but to no avail.

 I then proceeded to reach out to her supervisor. I explained to her on multiple occasions how my supervisor refused to approve my time for the day in spite of the fact that I exceeded the expected production quota. Furthermore I requested to be reassigned to another zone. At the end of the day what needs to be understood is that the managers don't care. As a result, I never heard from anyone in upper management about this incident.

  Prior to my experience I would wonder why so many of my teammates were quitting. Some would even take the time to curse my supervisor out on our team group chat before leaving. Now I was beginning to understand. In a previous meeting my manager singled me out as being one of the top producers on our team. However, now she was trying to downplay my productivity for the day by only giving me credit for HALF of the CREDIT for all the work I had done for the day as an excuse for not approving my hours and pay. Even if I had only closed out 4 cases instead of 8, enumerator pay is hourly and is not based on achieving any established production goal. In the event an enumerator failed to close out a single case for the day, they would still be entitled to receive full pay. Although the Census pay is great, I would never ever ever work for the Census Bureau again unless I could come in as a manager. Aside from the pay, working for the Census Bureau was terrible.

I was very happy to work fo the census. I know ho much it means to have the information about people living in an area. A typical day at work for me was to go to an area in the car and get out and knock on  doors and talk to the head of the household (or a qualifired person) and ask questions: how may people, it is the correct address, names, ages and relationships. It wasn't easy work because many people are afraid of us,or rather the government's motives for collecting information. That was the hardest part. There is no trust for many people living in the USA. This was the number one challenge with the census. The next hardest thing is gaining access to buildings to interview residents. The next hardest thing is using the devices. It is a little bit tricky to undestand the phone applications and entering the information properly.
A little more situational real time possibly group help with the apps might have excellerated the learning curve. With practice it became easier. A visual tree print out of the way the enumerating app works could be beneficial and speed up the learning curve. I loved the practice app. 

I would have done my job better if I had  injured myself by getting in and out of the car incorrectly. I wanted to keep working but my injury prevented me from doing the best job at the end. I did injury to myself. this was not the fault of the census. That said, a little guidance about ergonomics in the workplace can help employees a great deal. I think ergonomics in the work place segment about working at desks, lifting boxes and 'getting in and out of a car' because it is so utterly repetitive part of work to get in and out of the car. This could really have helped me.

Enumeration is very investigative work. I liked the challenge. Enumerators are alone a lot. The culture was not as evident to me as an enumerator because it is more solitary work. 

I was grateful for all the help I got from my manager. I can't begin to say enough about the manager.This really made it possible to do my job better each and every day.  The support was so helpful.

I am extremely grateful for having been hired and for the challenging experience. The government needs to do a better job at creating "know, like and trust factor" with the people. It might make enumerating easier. I really liked meeting people and seeing their challenges and their homes. It was a true education. I was grateful for the opportunity.

two last poinst: I know that because this was a problem solving job that workers accross the country probablby implemented creative strategies for getting the job done. I would love to see creative strategies information be collected and used for the improvement of the next census as well as education the public about what the information does for the cities and their inhaitants.

Being a census enumerator is a rare and temporary job by design, but I found it quite rewarding. You have to undergo a lot of training, about a week, but it's all paid and you'll mostly just need the basics. You work with a special, well-guarded smartphone to record surveys and keep in contact with your supervisor, who I found quite helpful. There's not much of a company culture since you're all spread out, and all my team interactions were strictly professional, but that's fine if you just want to make money. 

The pay is great! ...Well, for NYC anyway, it varies based on where you live. You set your own hours ahead of time, which determines how many households they give you that day. I'd say it's about one house for every 10 minutes you're available. The maps can vary based on the day - early on you'll get more houses close to where you live, but the further down the line you get, the more scattered they become. You can survive with this job if you don't have a car, but it'll be harder to get everything done, and you need some sort of reliable transportation. I did find the layout of the maps annoying sometimes, especially when they put houses next to each other in a completely different order on my map, but you can do the houses out of order anyway. If you can't do every house in a day, it's fine, but it'll carry over to the next day. They're pretty understanding. I've also had to leave work before fulfilling all my promised hours but they're fine with that too, you just only get paid for the hours you worked. 

The ease of the work varies. The phone gives you prompts for every question, as it's prepared for a lot of different answers, so you won't have to improvise much. As for whether you'll have a pleasant experience, it all depends on who you're interviewing. Sometimes people will be friendly, sometimes they'll shrug you off, and sometimes they'll be hostile. The bureau seems to care a lot about safety as they mark dangerous houses and discourage you from going there. Most of the time, people just told me they'd do the census online, though I still had to leave a notice for them to do it. Language barrier can be an issue but they have a special process for that, and a translation sheet to give people. I did work in a relatively safe neighborhood so nothing ever got too hostile, just a few grumpy people. I also did this during COVID so I could never get close to anybody anyway. If you like talking to people, or are simply interested in seeing the many types of people who live in your neighborhood, this is a fascinating job. 

Overall, this is a pretty chill and profitable temporary job, as long as you're willing to go door-to-door dozens of times a day asking the same kinds of questions. It's also a cool way to get to know your community, if you're into that sort of thing. 

Under the prior Kappos administrator, USPTO was great and ranked #1. USPTO has fallen to 76+ and latest heads have essentially torn-down all the goodwill that Kappos built-up since 2008. Under the last few heads, USPTO seems to have lost its way and on a destructive course to run aground. 

I don't know who these people are touting work-life balance other than a minority group that somehow escapes management abuses or operates unnoticed. People take their work home and are shackled by ball-chain to work supposedly by telework and "hoteling" programs. USPTO currently undergoing drastic changes for-the-worse against its fed workers and against the examining workforce as USPTO agency is plannng to shed 1021+ examiners in the next few years (based on agency's report to Congressional committee). 

As a demonstration, those that can retire are doing so en masse. USPTO is encountering difficulties in current retention, which is why they've gone active to solicit more bodies.
POPA Union is essentially non-existent advocates staffed by management shills. 
The wrong government job to choose at this time.

A bad and hostile place to work - keep looking - avoid or accept your fait accompli. Unless you're in desperate need of a bridge-over job then OK. 

A few other things about job
Typical work day spent in isolation for hours on end with no windows until you move up the chain to earn a window office (at least 5+ years). You do learn a lot about patents, how they work, which dispels all the myth about what is considered innovative technology for the most part. In rare circumstances, you might see something cool. Workplace culture is hostile by management and a general workgroup of introverted scientists-engineers. You are generally motivated by a stick and "gotcha" mentality. Most enjoyable part of job is interacting with high-caliber individuals and helping the public with getting inventions navigated through the process and all the obstacles. You work in a cool looking environment with a beautiful campus but little time to enjoy the infrastructure. You're constantly placed on stress-alert to meet a quota of work, which doesn't sound hard if you're not lazy. But the people controlling your success can torpedo you from work completion. Even hardworking workers don't make it under the whims of management or based on mere personality conflicts.
This is no ordinary cushy government job and the wrong one to choose if you're willing to take less pay vs. more stress.

This agency does fire people on trumped-up charges initiated by petty supervisory underlings.
Yes it's true the government never lays off people.
Instead, they drive off people. That's how it's done here.

When I arrived under the Kappos administrator, USPTO was great and ranked #1.  USPTO has fallen to 76+ and latest heads have essentially torn-down all the goodwill that Kappos built-up since 2008.  Under the last few heads, USPTO seems to have lost its way and on a destructive course to run aground.  Yes government never lays off people here but they do drive off people.  This agency does fire people on trumped-up charges initiated by petty supervisory underlings.

I don't know who these people are touting work-life balance other than a minority group that somehow escapes management abuses or operates unnoticed.  People take their work home and are shackled by ball-chain to work supposedly by telework and "hoteling" programs.  USPTO currently undergoing drastic changes for-the-worse against its fed workers and against the examining workforce as USPTO agency is plannng to shed 1021+ examiners in the next few years (based on agency's report to Congressional committee).  

As a demonstration, those that can retire are doing so en masse.  USPTO is encountering difficulties in current retention, which is why they've gone active to solicit more bodies.
POPA Union is essentially non-existent advocates staffed by management shills.  
The wrong government job to choose at this time.

A bad and hostile place to work - keep looking - avoid or accept your fait accompli.  Unless you're in desperate need of a bridge-over job then OK.  

A few other things about job
Typical work day spent in isolation for hours on end with no windows until you move up the chain to earn a window office (at least 5+ years).  You do learn a lot about patents, how they work, which dispels all the myth about what is considered innovative technology for the most part.  In rare circumstances, you might see something cool.  Workplace culture is hostile by management and a general workgroup of introverted scientists-engineers.  You are generally motivated by a stick and "gotcha" mentality.  Most enjoyable part of job is interacting with high-caliber individuals and helping the public with getting inventions navigated through the process and all the obstacles.  You work in a cool looking environment with a beautiful campus but little time to enjoy the infrastructure.  You're constantly placed on stress-alert to meet a quota of work, which doesn't sound hard if you're not lazy.  But the people controlling your success can torpedo you from work completion.  Even hardworking workers don't make it under the whims of management or based on mere personality conflicts.
This is no ordinary cushy government job and the wrong one to choose if you're willing to take less pay vs. more stress.

Don't work as a Patent Examiner for the USPTO. Worst job I have ever had. I truly enjoyed the job in the first 6 months, and I really wanted to stay long term, however everything begins to change when they try to push more production out of you. This is also dependent on your area and SPE. If you're in an area (TC or AU) that you can't comprehend the applications well, put in for a transfer as soon as possible. I waited to long and tried to tough it out, thinking it would eventually get easier, but it doesn't. The work load becomes unmanageable and will bury you in so much stress. They expect you to reach 95% production by their standards, which requires most people to dedicate 60-80 hours a week. It's extremely rare for people to achieve that rate of production within a standard 40hr week. As a GS7 and below your not supposed to work voluntary overtime, but then Primaries will tell you that it is essential to keep the job, but just don't tell anyone or get caught. If you're GS 9 and above you can work voluntary overtime, but you also have a higher production demand so it doesn't really save you. I knew plenty of coworkers who dedicate 12+ hours a day 7 days a week just to stay close enough to 100% production. They give you great flexibility in your hours and work schedule, which is very nice, but it's essential to keeping your sanity and mental clarity just to perform the daily job. The remote life is very nice, except when you try to ask for help. Many Primaries and SPEs are quick to beat around the bush when you ask for their guidance. They have no personal face to face interaction, because it is remote work, so it's easy for them to put in minimal effort with guiding you. They usually just repeat the same general knowledge that "you have to work fast and just get your application submitted" and if you do submit it with poor quality, they take 2 weeks to get it returned to you for each submission/resubmission, while you have moved on to the next struggle. Keep in mind you get no credit until they finally sign off on it. I personally had applications go back and for a month before I received credit, which ends up skewing your production numbers. Many people also take advantage of sick time, holidays, and PTO to help boost their production percentage by working when they're not supposed to be working. 

If you're a single person, don't mind working a minimum of 50+ hours a week, and have no problem delivering poor quality just to get quantity out, you can probably enjoy this job. 

Otherwise, If you have a family, please don't do this job. This job will destroy your mental health and your family relationship. 

Worked as a field enumerator for the U.S. Census Bureau in 2020 for about 2 months. With COVID-19 and executive orders, the time I was accepted to when I was hired was understandably wonky. The work itself is easy to comprehend if you;
1) understand how to operate a cellphone (iPhone) 
2) are familiar with Google Maps with basic knowledge on how to manually locate address
3) comfortable with interacting with the public, especially acknowledging you may definitely come into contact with people that aren't going to be happy to see you
4) can de-escalate situations and use those skills to encourage an unwilling person to complete a census questionaire
5) comfortable with dogs
6) occasionally travel to areas you are unfamiliar with

My first couple of weeks as field enumerator had me working in an area about 1 hour away from my home. Definitely unfamiliar terrority but was able to finish my daily cases because of the aforementioned skills I have. The interviews are verbatim from the work issued iPhone so there's no memorization required, and fairly easy to accomplish. The "hardest" parts are finding homes and talking to people that are not interested in talking to you. I came into contact with people that absolutely were against the government and basically everything but was sometimes able to get some valuable info to finish a case but also had doors slammed in my face. Not surprising and definitely valuable work experience. 

I enjoyed traveling about my city and state to places I've never visited. I met lovely people and the biggest perk was interacting with so many dogs. Use your judgement to not get into dangerous situations and you'll be fine. As a female working in a rural location alone, I had my wits to help me avoid and prevent unsavory situations. 

A typical day is receiving your work caseload at 7 am and when you are to begin work (based on the work availability you previously provided - you can change you availability by 11:00 PM ). I viewed my cases and determine how I'm going to execute the day. You may have cases on opposite sides of the city and do not want to take advantage of that and drive miles between each case - your CFS (census field supervisor) will get alerts to this and question it. Go to the house, attempt a questionnaire by following the script on the work app and move on. Repeitive work but the same script on different homes make it less painful.

 Supervisors are extremely busy and sometimes in the field themselves so if you need constant help or require constant supervision this may not be ideal for you. You are alone, sometimes you lose cell service, and you have to problem solve in real time. 

One must do the following during a typical day: gather materials for interviews (e.g. pencils, blank forms, info sheets, etc), organize census forms, plan driving route via maps supplied by Census; interview residents about Census day status; record info on Census forms; take notes for special situations; inspect completed forms before submission for quality control purposes; fill out time sheet and turn in work.

During my tenure with the Census, I learned that some people are congenial and cooperative while others are downright belligerent. With the latter people in mind, I learned how to deal with objections effectively through empathy, persuasion and negotiation. It was a complicated process (one I won't discuss here), but it did ultimately help me build trust with residents and change their perceptions about the Census. I learned to be better organized and productive - I managed my calendar and to-do lists, kept my work bag tidy and organized making my work materials easier to access, planned my routes like UPS (tried to make it such that I only had to make right turns in my vehicle which reduced driving time and milage), and found ways to shorten interview times without sacrificing quality. I learned to ask for help when needed (why exacerbate a problem by doing something one cannot handle without helpful guidance?).

When it came to management, it seemed as though they weren't thoroughly trained for job. They often failed to communicate daily with subordinates about decisions made by senior-level managers.

Co-workers were very friendly and helpful. They often supplied me with surplus materials when needed and vice versa. Although we did not see each other in the field everyday, they nevertheless provided useful insight into how one should approach people and the job at hand.

The hardest part of job was finding people willing to supply info about households in the event such households refused interview or did not occupy unit on Census day. This often got in the way of completing forms in a timely manner.

The most enjoyable part of job had to be interacting with residents - especially those who were amiable! Learning to deal with objections proved to be enjoyable permitted the process lead to successful completion! The saturday morning meeting was also enjoyable as it gave people an opportunity to build camaraderie and to discuss ways to solve problems and enhance productivity.

The day started with the monitoring of data from the previous day, week, and month, which showed any outliers and discrepancies that required immediate attention. This was followed by a meeting with my office staff to set the agenda for the day. After that, I would meet with my field operations supervisors, followed by my field managers. After lunch, we would have a meeting with all of the department managers in which the office manager would receive our pressing issues and offer advise and motivation. The rest of the day would be spent training new hires, interviewing potential employees, conversing with upper level management, studying reports, solving office and field problems, motivating all, and preparing for the next day and supervising the prep-work for the next field operation which would usually begin within a few weeks. This included ordering, checking, and the assembly of supplies.
Somewhere during the day, I would schedule meetings for the resolution of conflicts and/or grievances. I also would find venues for the training of the next group of field workers, meet with the people who had the authority to donate the space and coordinate the training sessions. The day seemed to zip by, as did the year spent in this environment.
I learned how to employ all of my talents, skills and abilities for the betterment of others. I learned to be the "boss that everyone wanted to work for," and demanded an excellent, team focused spirit from all that were in my department. I was able to interview, hire, and train an exceptional team which was without question, my most important accomplishment, because the team made the successful accomplishment of one of the most challenging tasks a joy and almost easy. My fellow managers and supervisors were wonderful people and we were able to maintain a very professional, cooperative work environment.
The hardest part of the job was to release people from employment for something that was done either by them or for something that was not accomplished.
One great part of this work experience was the diversity of the workforce and the mingling of many cultures and ages in one office.
Another great thing was that my department was consistently at or near the top of the best Quality Assurance departments in the entire region which included New York City and northern Jersey,(about forty departments) The right team, when motivated and focused on a task can make the impossible seem easy.

A typical morning for a Census Enumerator, make yourself available on your assigned system account on census phone each evening and log in your worked hours on census system for approval from your Supervisor.  A case load to 32 to 62 cases are assigned to you by 7:00a.m. each morning depending of hours available and travel needs.  Review and plan your route day and go out on the field. Mileage is paid to and from your home to assignment and back. Overtime is approved till Sept 30 and much incentives for doing cases.  Door knocking. may be in areas where dogs or cautious situations may be present or private properties or hard to find or places that are seriously abandoned . Do to covid  training is in person for 4 hour and you are Not considered an employee untill you get sworn in half hour or more into training and you"ll are considered on payroll till then. get to charge mileage and. time to go back home.  At training you get to fill out all final documents to come onboard and they have to be perfect or that delayed your employment date, you get you census batch, census bag, antibacterial, masks, covid instructions, Notice of Visits pads, Who to count on and confidentiality flyer, language card, and other documents. After this, it takes like 3 days for you to get you training on the training system and you can do all training from home. If you do it on evenings and Sundays you will get paid a bit more and you can only charge a set amount of time for training depending which one it is. One is for 9 hours or so and then whatever time  you spent needing assistance or on phone with tech support if needed.   Pay is 21 dollars an hour plus i10% paid over after 6pm and 25% pay all day on Sunday's. Plus they pay incentives for making yourself available for work and completing your .75 of cases I believe per hour.. Incentives could up to 800 per month I believe. You got be prepared to travel to three cities in surrounding areas in a day and be very aware of your surroundings and use best judgment..Being a people person skill will help you out a lot. Walk quite a bit sometimes, be out on tbe sun and avoid dehydration or passing out.   Drink lots water. Only 30 min breaks after 5 hours worked . Dress Business Casual for job.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Census enumerator 137 salaries reported	$19.83 per hour
Field representative 95 salaries reported	$21.36 per hour
Statistician 7 salaries reported	$112,501 per year
Field supervisor 14 salaries reported	$28.39 per hour
Interviewer 7 salaries reported	$23.03 per hour

Working at U.S. Department of Commerce: Company Overview and Reviews

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Department of Commerce Ratings

Popular jobs at U.S. Department of Commerce

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected