WASHINGTON — With the 2010 population count looming, the government provided new assurances Thursday that information Americans fill out on their census forms will be kept confidential and not be used for law enforcement.
In a letter to Congress, the Obama administration provided its legal position that census data cannot be disclosed under the Patriot Act, the nation's main counterterrorism law. The government has previously given legal assurances the information will not be used for immigration enforcement...
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Mekonnan Simore has been searching for work in Washington since losing his job as a cab driver almost a year ago. In a city with a 12.1 per cent unemployment rate it has been tough going for the 34-year-old, who moved to the US from Ethiopia when he was a child.
“I’ve got thousands in debt and I’m looking hard for work,” Mr Simore says. “It’s brutal out here. No one is hiring.”
But for the first time in months Mr Simore is optimistic on his job prospects. He applied for a job with the US Census Bureau, which is hiring 1.2m workers to carry out its decennial population count on April 1. The job, which pays $20 (€14.30, £13.30) an hour, would make Mr Simore a foot soldier in the largest civilian mobilisation of workers in US history – an effort likely to give a temporary boost to a battered jobs market...
