(Radio Iowa) — The U.S. Census Bureau says Iowa is one of the states where the agency is having an especially difficult time finding temporary workers. The Census is hiring for office jobs in Des Moines as well as field workers who will go door to door statewide starting in May. The goal for the agency is to collect more than 21-thousand applications for the part time jobs — but Marilyn Sanders, a regional director for the Census, says so far only about half that number have applied. “Right now we’re looking for approximately about 10,000 more applicants to complete the recruiting for the state of Iowa,” she says.

Iowa’s low unemployment rate is a factor and the Census Bureau recently raised the hourly wage in the Des Moines area in hopes of attracting more applicants. Sanders says having local workers improves the response rate.  “The opportunity to help us to get us a complete count is when we have people that represent the community knocking on the doors,” Sanders says.

The Census determines how many seats in the House of Representatives go to each state. Some 675 billion dollars in federal funding each year is distributed, based on the population count. Sanders attended the first meeting of the statewide Complete Count Committee yesterday (Wednesday) where she encouraged members to organize events to drive recruiting.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Grant Gerlock)