The opening of a Local Census Office this week in Fayetteville, N.C., marks the beginning of a recruiting effort to hire nearly 3,000 part-time workers for the 2008 Census Dress Rehearsal.

      The Local Census Office will serve as the home base for conducting the 2008 Census Dress Rehearsal activities and population count in a nine-county area surrounding Fayetteville. The Local Census Office will hire hundreds of local residents in the next few months to update address lists. As dress rehearsal activities progress through the summer of 2008, the Census Bureau will hire hundreds of additional part-time workers to interview residents who do not mail back their census questionnaires.

      Fayetteville – and the surrounding nine-counties of Chatham, Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, Lee, Montgomery, Moore, Richmond and Scotland – is one of two locations in the nation to host the dress rehearsal, which serves as an important dry run of the nationwide population count in 2010. San Joaquin County, Calif., was selected as the other dress rehearsal site.

      For more information on the dress rehearsal and to apply for jobs, contact the Local Census Office at 1-866-673-2008, 3611 Ramsey St., Fayetteville, NC 28311-7647.