What does a census taker do? >Page 1, 2

What does a census taker do if nobody's home when they come knocking? Keep knocking.

• The enumerator must make up to six attempts to complete a questionnaire.

  If no one is home at an occupied housing unit, the enumerator obtains as much information as possible about how to contact the occupants from a neighbor, building manager, or another source.

  The enumerator also leaves a notice at the address that they have visited and provides a telephone number so the occupant can call back.

  The enumerator then makes up to two additional personal visits (3 in all) and three telephone attempts at contacting the household before obtaining as much information as possible to complete the questionnaire from a knowledgeable source. Enumerators are instructed to make their callbacks on different days of the week and at different times of day.

  The enumerator must maintain a record of callbacks that lists each type of callback made (telephone or personal visit) and the exact date and time it occurred. Enumerators are expected to obtain complete interviews but must obtain at least the status (occupied or vacant) and the number of people living in the unit.

  If the enumerator submits a questionnaire that contains this minimal level of data, the crew leader must check the enumerator's record of callbacks for the housing unit to determine that procedures were properly followed. The crew leader also holds these cases for possible further follow-up to obtain more complete data.
  
  

• Crew leaders meet daily with each enumerator to pick up and check completed work.

  Crew leaders are expected to make sure that the enumerators produce quality work at a rate of 1 to 1.5 completed questionnaires per hour depending on the type of area covered. Crew leaders check each completed questionnaire for completeness and accuracy.

  In order to prevent falsification of the data by enumerators, a percentage of each enumerator's work is verified for accuracy by a re-interview staff. This staff verifies a sample of each enumerator's work and may also verify additional questionnaires from enumerators whose work differs significantly from that of other enumerators working for the same crew leader. An enumerator who is discovered falsifying data is dismissed immediately and all the work must be redone by another enumerator.

And so it goes until a completed census questionnaire has been completed and turned into the local census office for every housing unit address in America.

Like all other employees of the Census Bureau, enumerators are subject by law to severe penalties including imprisonment for divulging information outside of the required scope of their job.

Considering the public's overall fondness for the Census' mail-in form, doesn't being a census taker and going out to get those answers in person sound like a fun way to pick up a few extra bucks for the summer?