How to get paid up to $19/hour by working for the 2020 US Census

2020 is an important year for the U.S. government. Not because of any election or bills that probably won't get passed, but because of the Federal Census.

"Every 10 years we have to count everyone in the country we've been doing it since 1790," Williamson County Recruiting Assistant said at an event in Murfreesboro. "In the beginning, federal Marshal's would do it on horseback."

But now the federal government hires local workers to be the boots on the ground.

The data collected in the decennial census are used to determine everything from congressional representation to how funds are spent for roads, schools, hospitals, and the things that make civilization possible. The data determine the distribution of $9 billion in federal funds, or $2,000 per person. The State of Tennessee also uses census data to calculate how much cities and counties get from state-collected sales taxes.

That all money is given to someone else's community if every single person isn't counted.

You can help ensure that everyone in your community is counted in the next census and get paid at the same time.

"So, we need to know where people live to distribute funding, disaster response, allocating congressional districts on the state and federal levels," Anderson said.

The Census Bureau needs to hire about 500,000 census takers across the country in 2020. In Tennessee, they are only about halfway to their goal.

In the Nashville MSA, which includes Murfreesboro, the Census Bureau is paying $19 an hour and $0.58 per mile. The jobs are temporary but offer around 30 hours per week.

"These jobs can be a great second job, and we're pitching them to students, bus drivers, teachers and others," said Jeff Behler, regional director of the Census Bureau's New York Regional Office. "You can work your 40-hour-per-week job and work for us on the weekends and be successful."

Do you want to work on the 2020 Census?

The first step is to complete the online job application. This will include some assessment questions about your education, work, and other experience.