President Obama campaigned to help urban areas receive needed resources and also to create jobs in these under-served areas of America.

The 2010 Census can help do both, but only if St. Louis residents respond to the challenge before them.

More than a thousand jobs will be created for U.S. Census Bureau field operations, and an open house launching the two-year effort was held last Saturday at the Kappa Alpha Psi Foundation Building.

U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay, chair of the House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives, which oversees the operations of the Census Bureau, said more than 1,000 jobs would be available in the area.

He also warned that the region needs everyone to be counted to assure that it receives every dollar it qualifies for under population guidelines.

“Every person that we miss will cost that local community approximately $1,000 in federal funding, each year. Over the next decade, that works out to 10,000 federal dollars lost for every St. Louisan that we don’t count.”

Arnold Jackson, associate census director, said the data would impact political representation in Congress and state legislatures and distribution of funds.

“More than $300 billion is granted based on census population data,” he said.

“This is our opportunity to provide the nation with the best numbers possible.”

Jackson said that the Census Bureau “wants everyone to feel they are an owner of the census.”

“This is democracy in action, and the backbone of the effort is partnering with the community,” Jackson said.

Clay called the Census “a snapshot of the entire American family,” and a $12 billion national project that provides federal, state and local governments with critical information to help strengthen communities.

He says one of his primary goals is to work with the Census Bureau to eliminate the undercount of African Americans, Hispanics and other minorities from the upcoming national census.

“It Is the single best resource we have to understand what is actually happening to real people in this country,” Clay said.

The results provide the basis of redistricting political jurisdictions at the federal, state and local levels.

“And we’re going to hire some great people in St. Louis and across the nation to help us,”

To apply for a job with the U.S Census Bureau, call the census recruiting hotline at (866) 861-2010. Or visit www.2010censusjobs.gov.

If you are interested in working for the Census Bureau, visit the Urban League city office (3701 Grandel/ Grand and Delmar) for an application and testing, Monday, January 26 at 10 a.m. Please be on time, bring your resume and bring two forms of ID (driver’s license and social security card, birth certificate or passport). Call for directions at 615-3600.