Census can't find takers in Northern Michigan

Michigan is having trouble finding rural census workers. How is your community doing? In Muskegon County, where a U.S. Census Bureau office is housed, plenty of workers have applied, but not in other areas covered by the office. "Our biggest problem areas are the great white north, in the very isolated tracts," Greg Debniak, manager of the Muskegon office, told John S. Hausman of the Muskegon Chronicle. "A lot of those areas are woefully short. So we’re redoubling our (recruitment) efforts up there."

In a region with some of the highest unemployment in the nation, Debniak was surprised to be short on applicants, Hausman reports. Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Osceola, Lake, Newaygo and Mecosta counties are covered by the office, and most of the jobs are for "so-called 'enumerators' who will knock on doors of people who don’t return mailed questionnaires, among other duties," Hausman writes. Some enumerators also do counts in at institutions, such as prisons, hospitals, dormitories, group homes and assisted-living centers. (Read more)

Census pay in Michigan ranges from $11.25 per hour in northern Michigan to $16 per hour in Detroit, Dustin Dwyer of Michigan Public Radio reports. Debniak told Dwyer the problem isn't just isolated to his office, but also affects many other rural northern counties. (Read more)