by Calculated Risk on 8/25/2020 10:17:00 AM

The Census Bureau released an update today on 2020 Census Paid Temporary Workers

As of the July BLS employment report reference week, there were 50,404 decennial Census temporary workers. As of August  reference week there were 288,204 temp workers.

This means the August employment report will show an increase of 237,800 in temporary Census hiring under Federal employment.

Click on graph for larger image.

This is the 2020 Census Paid Temporary Workers report released today.

The temporary employment for the July and August reference weeks are circled in red.

Since these are temporary, and only happen every ten years with the decennial Census, it makes sense to adjust the headline monthly Current Employment Statistics (CES) by Census hiring to determine the underlying employment trend.

The correct adjustment method is to take the headline number and subtract the change in the number of Census 2020 temporary and intermittent workers. For more, see: How to Report the Monthly Employment Number excluding Temporary Census Hiring