THE CENTRAL STATISTICS OFFICE has been forced to shut its applications window for 5,000 part-time jobs being created for the Census this April – after it received more than three times the number of applications it needed within just two days.

The CSO had begun advertising last year for the 5,000 jobs of Census Enumerator last year, and had opened applications for the roles yesterday, expecting to accept applications until next Tuesday.

The CSO’s special website set up to recruit new temporary staff, however, was this evening updated to inform prospective applicants that the week-long window had been abandoned, with applications already closed – because the maximum number of applications the CSO could handle had already been met.

That number was 15,000 – three times the number of jobs actually available – meaning that between 9am yesterday, when applications opened, and 5pm today when they closed again, the CSO received one application for a job every eight seconds.

Over 21,000 people had pre-registered their interest in the part-time roles, signing up to be given email reminders when the applications window opened yesterday. The Irish Times this morning reported that 6,500 applications had been received by yesterday evening.

The CSO has committed to interviewing each one of the 15,000 applicants, who – if successful – will be asked required to work 22 hours per week carrying out a range of activities before and after Census Night on April 10.

Enumerators are required to visit houses in their area to verify their location against pre-prepared maps, as well as recording the locations of new houses, before visiting each and delivering the standard census forms.

They are also required to visit buildings after the census and ensure that all forms are collated and returned to the CSO for processing. They are paid €2,200 for their work.