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On April 1, 2020, the U.S. Bureau of the Census will begin collecting demographic data for the 2020 Census, as directed by the U. S. Constitution. Initial preparation for a decennial census can begin up to a year and a half prior to the actual Census Day (April 1) and involves thousands of temporary workers conducting address canvassing and follow-up. Short-term field operations can also have very dynamic staffing levels that vary from day to day. During the various phases of a decennial census, the temporary and intermittent nature of the work can result in a significant impact on monthly employment estimates, as measured by the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey. Hiring for the census is reflected in data for federal government. Aggregate industries impacted by census temporary and intermittent worker hiring include government, service-providing, and total nonfarm.
Excel tables detailing the impact of the census on CES federal government estimates by State are available below. 2020 Census data will be updated on a monthly basis.
With the release of the June 2019 preliminary estimates, the tables have been expanded to include workers that were hired during 2018 for initial preparation and testing for the Census.
During the 2010 Census, BLS did not publish real-time data on temporary Census workers for states. In order to provide insight for data users, tabulations by state for the 2010 Census were re-created using the most up-to-date microdata available as of October 2019. As a result of microdata differences and rounding of both state and national data for publication, users are cautioned that the aggregate of state totals will not sum exactly to the CES national totals for temporary Census workers for all months. The CES national data for these temporary Census workers is shown as it was developed and published as preliminary estimates were released.
For national level data, please visit https://www.bls.gov/ces/tables/census-temporary-intermittent-workers-government-employment.htm.
Last Modified Date: October 18, 2019