All that was missing was an Uncle Sam recruiting poster: “I want you — to participate in the census.”

Local and regional census officials on Wednesday kicked off a celebration for the 2010 census, imploring people to fill out their census forms and help find hundreds of temporary workers.

“The census is recruiting and we are recruiting now,” said Lori McAlister, assistant manager for recruiting in the Lincoln office.

The Census Bureau plans to hire more than 800 people in Nebraska, including more than 100 in the Lincoln area, said Steve Rein, local census office manager.

Most of those jobs will be five- to 10-week assignments verifying addresses or knocking on doors of people who don’t return forms.

But about 30 jobs will be working in the Lincoln office at 3101 N.W. 12th St., which will be open until September 2010, Rein said.

The bureau also plans to open offices in Omaha and North Platte over the next few months.

The jobs have always been popular with retirees, students and people who don’t work full-time, he said. But this time around, they seem to be attracting interest from a wider cross-section of people.

“Maybe because of the economic times we’re experiencing a broad variety of applicants,” Rein said.

He’s seen interest from people who are between jobs and from full-timer workers needing to make additional money.

Pay starts at $11.50 an hour and could be higher, depending on the job title.

The Census Bureau held job fairs in Lincoln and Omaha in December and has them scheduled in nine cities this month.

The bureau will start calling prospective employees in February and March to do work verifying addresses in the spring, Rein said.

There will be another wave of employees needed in October and then next April, when people will be hired to knock on doors of homes that did not return forms.

That shouldn’t be a huge problem in Nebraska. In 2000, 75 percent of people in the state returned their forms, which ranked first in the 10-state Denver region and second in the country behind Iowa, said Vickie McIntire, deputy regional census director.

The census has also made it easier and less time-consuming to complete the task.

For the 2010 census, households will receive what is called the “short form,” a 10-question form that should take less than 10 minutes.

“It’s easier than filling out a credit card application,”McIntire said.

In the past, some randomly selected households were selected to fill out a much-more extensive survey.

McIntire stressed the importance of getting complete and accurate census data, which is used for a wide range of purposes, including determining states’ representation in Congress and determining how to distribute $3 trillion in federal funds over the next 10 years to schools, hospitals and other institutions.

Said Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler: “Failing to participate in the census could cost Lincoln millions of dollars at a time when the city needs every penny it can get.”

Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.