Now Hiring: US Census Workers

If you need a job and are good with people and numbers, the government might have work for you. The U.S. Census Bureau just began the process of hiring more than one million temporary workers for its 2010 population count. If hired, you'll get good pay, flexible hours, paid training, mileage reimbursement and the sense of doing something to help out your country. Best of all, you don't have to go very far - the jobs are right where you live.

Every 10 years, the Census Bureau takes on the massive project of attempting to count every person who lives in the United States. While most get forms mailed to them, not everyone fills them out properly or at all. You'll go door-to-door in your community to encourage people to fill out their questionnaires and help them with any questions they might have. You will also conduct brief interviews with some residents to help learn more about them for the survey.

In exchange for your hard work, you'll earn anywhere from $10 to $20 an hour. The Census Bureau has a neat interactive map on its website where you can see how much the job pays near you. Be prepared to work anywhere from 20 to 40 hours a week and mainly nights and weekends - after all, that's when people are home. The length of the job depends on how much work there is to be done in your area.

If this all sounds good to you, you're not alone. Nabbing a census job might not be easy in this current economic slump. There's a deluge of qualified workers - many with years of professional experience and degrees - also applying.

Here are the qualifications, according to the Census website:

• You are able to read, write, and speak English.
• You are a U.S. citizen.
• You are a legal permanent resident, or non-citizen with an appropriate work visa, and you possess a bilingual skill for which there are no available qualified U.S. citizens.
• You are at least 18 years old.
• You have a valid social security number.
• You take a written test of basic skills.
• You have a valid driver's license.
• You pass a background check.
• You commit to four days of training. You will be paid for training days. Training can be held either during daytime hours or during evening and weekend hours.

There's also a multiple-choice test you'll have to pass. It quizzes your reading, clerical, number and organizational skills. You can take a practice test on the Census Bureau website. Being bilingual can also help your chances of landing the job.

Ready to apply? Just head to the Census Bureau website, print and fill out the appropriate forms and then call your local census office to schedule an in-person interview and test. Good luck!

States May Be "Big Losers," but Cities Still Gain

The Census Bureau's tally of state population changes, released just before Christmas, has become more fodder for some long-suffering states. Five of the nation's largest states were dubbed "the biggest losers," meaning they saw the highest imbalance between people moving out and people moving in.

Not surprisingly, none of the losing states is exactly a picture of economic health. California topped the list, losing more than 98,000 residents. Michigan, Illinois and Ohio lost more than 170,000 between the three of them. New York and New Jersey combined to lose almost 130,000, and Florida lost 31,179.

Sure, it's fun it is to pick on insolvent California, seedy Illinois, and New York, with its Wall Street villains and laid off media mavens. But a closer look at the data reveals a more complex picture.

For one thing, four of the five "losing" industrial stalwarts ended the last fiscal year with more residents than they had twelve months earlier. Yes, more people moved out of these states than moved in. But the number of people born in the states exceeded the number of people dying.

That's right: California's population grew by one percent, Illinois' by half-a-percent, New York's by four-tenths of a percent, and Ohio's by a handful of buckeyes (a tenth of one percent). Michigan, in a sign of the true ravages from the auto industry's failure, actually lost population overall.

Remember your high-school statistics: one should always question the data. The losers, in other words, are gainers.

And that sends our hunt for long-term appreciation in home values in a different direction. Chris Jones, vice president for research of an urban-advocacy group called the Regional Plan Association, points out that big cities are growing and pulling their close-in suburbs along -- even if those suburbs sit in neighboring states.

"State boundaries have little correlation with the economic regions that drive migration," Jones said. "They don't tell you a lot about very big differences within the states."

The Census Bureau concedes that it has not broken down the changes in population to show whether cities in "loser" states are getting bigger or rural areas in "gainer" states are getting smaller. It will produce that data in May 2010, a Census spokesperson told me.

The biggest total population gainers? Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Washington state. The common thread among the winners is that they have fast-growing cities with satellite suburbs, fueled by boomers and empty-nesters move back to spruced-up downtowns. Texas, for example, claims three major urban centers that are all working to make their neighborhoods more transit and pedestrian-friendly and revitalize their downtowns.

Even Nevada, despite its real estate crisis, grew by one percent as Las Vegas became a more diversified economy with more downtown living.

"The types of public spaces and recreation that are traditionally in cities are much more aligned with consumer preference trends than they were 20 years ago," said Jones. "You have an aging population of baby boomers looking for a home that's smaller and more convenient to amenities and transit."

Add to that the fact that many people are marrying and having kids later than they used to, and suddenly cities -- not states -- start looking like the interesting variable. A vibrant metropolitan center with close-in suburbs that lie across state lines teaches us more, perhaps, than counting U-Hauls that drive across state lines.

A Resurgent Dollar Could Be 2010's First Surprise

This past year sure was packed with stunning turnarounds: Few foresaw a soaring stock market but tumbling approval ratings for President Obama. And it may have one last twist in store for investors.

Many investors saw a crumbling dollar as a sure bet in the wake of the Federal Reserve's unprecedented liquidity injections, but over the last month the greenback has instead mounted a sharp turnaround. And while the mainstream sentiment remains negative on the currency, a high-profile minority of investors – with both more bullish and bearish economic outlooks than most -- are now betting that the rally will continue into the new year.

The convergence of views about the dollar from investors in both contrarian camps and who correctly anticipated the stock market rally may be revealing about the year ahead. While the status quo predicts a gradual downward move for the greenback amid a limp economic recovery, any surprises -- whether positive or negative -- could lead to a sharp reversal. And if 2009 was any indication, investors should remember that things rarely play out in the smooth way that the consensus predicts.

The dollar has already gained about 5% against a basket of currencies during the last month. Butanother 10% move upwards for the greenback could be in store, according to Barton Biggs, the managing partner of powerhouse hedge fund Traxis Partners. Biggs, who suspects an economic recovery could be much stronger than is widely believed, has been bullish on stocks and sees the S&P 500 gaining another 10% as well.

Bounce Now, Bomb Later

But even Marc Faber, who predicts the dollar will ultimately be worthless because of the Fed's money-printing, sees a strong if temporary bounce on the horizon for the greenback. Eventually, though, Faber sees the Fed's liquidity injections driving up inflation, and he expects investors to ditch assets like cash and Treasuries in favor of equities as a result.

Noted analyst Robert Precther of independent forecasting firm Elliott Wave International, sees the Fed running out of ammo in the face of a collapsing economy in the year ahead. The resulting deflationary environment will send investors racing to the safety of the dollar, Precther argues.

However, some bullish investors say the start of the year could bring a stronger rebound in jobs than most predicted. One in that camp is Charles Schwab Chief Investment Officer Liz Ann Sonders, who recently wrote that panicked companies went overboard in cutting jobs amid the downturn. Judging by the GDP declines and correlating job losses during prior recessions, she noted, employers may have fired 30% more workers than they should have.

Now that business confidence is recovering, "many companies concede they didn't just cut employment to the bone, but into the bone," Sonders wrote. Surprisingly strong recent jobs reports and blistering temp hiring may be testament to the sharp rebound that lies ahead. And the resulting Fed tightening of liquidity in response could further shore up the dollar.

Bad News for Commodities?

The impact of a rising dollar on other assets remains unclear. While a rise in the dollar usually led to a fall in stocks for much of the year, that correlation has abated recently. Commodities like oil and gold -- the latter was especially seen as a play on a crumbling dollar -- could get hit hard by a resurgent greenback.

But whether the year ahead brings a brisk recovery or more chaos, a sharp rally in the greenback -- left for dead not long ago -- could be in store.