Announcements

The US Census Bureau’s Demographic Programs Directorate has 3 new job announcements for Pathways Recent Graduate opportunities, which are found on USAJOBS.gov.  The Demographic Programs Directorate has 5 divisions and over 75 branches. 

The vacancy announcements listed below opened on August 10, 2020 and will close at 11:59 p.m., EDT on August 21, 2020, or when 100 applications are received, whichever comes first.  

Announcement Number: ADDP-2020-0019

This vacancy announcement may be used to fill multiple GS-1530-07 Statistician positions in the Demographic Programs Directorate.

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/575673200

 

Announcement Number: ADDP-2020-0020

This vacancy announcement may be used to fill multiple GS-1530-09 Statistician positions in the Demographic Programs Directorate.

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/575673900

 

Announcement Number: ADDP-2020-0021

This vacancy announcement may be used to fill multiple GS-1530-11 Statistician positions in the Demographic Programs Directorate.

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/575674900

Applicants can preview the vacancy questions by clicking on the link at the bottom of the Qualifications and Evaluations section of each announcement.

Applicants applying to these announcements should read the "who may apply" section carefully to determine their eligibility/area of consideration.

The Demographic Programs Directorate:

The Demographic Programs Directorate provides relevant and accurate information on the size, distribution, and characteristics of the nation's population, income and poverty, and housing. In addition to having a vital role in the Decennial Census, Demo is responsible for a vast array of surveys and data products that fill the nation's need for current information between censuses. We provide information for policy decisions to promote the economic and social well-being of the United States.

Additionally, the Directorate is responsible for: gathering international demographic data; providing survey and statistical services to other government agencies, such as survey design, data collection, and data processing; maintaining strong partnerships with sponsors and stakeholders; and designing and marketing new products that meet national and international information needs. 

 

All interested candidates are invited to apply. Please forward to others who may be interested.

Dave Zaslow, Economist
Demographic and Economic Studies Branch, International Programs, Population Division
U.S. Census Bureau
301-763-6195

census.gov  | @uscensusbureau
Shape your future. START HERE > 2020census.gov

Click here for the Spring 2020 edition of SDA's newsletter, Southern Demographic News!

Newsletter contributions are always welcome! Please send any to news@sda-demography.org

POPULATION RESEARCH AND POLICY REVIEW

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: SPECIAL ISSUE

Deadline: December 1, 2020

Population Research and Policy Review (PRPR) welcomes proposals for its next Special Issue. PRPR typically publishes one Special Issue (SI) each year. The next SI will include around five empirical papers together with an introductory editorial that provides a more overarching synthesis of the individual contributions.

Submission of proposals

The proposal for the SI should be made by the expected guest editor(s) and submitted to the editors-in-chief of PRPR (Kara Joyner: kara.joyner@utsa.edu and Corey Sparks: corey.sparks@utsa.edu). The proposal must include:

Procedure and responsibilities of the guest editor(s)

The SI proposals will be evaluated by the Editors and Editorial Board of PRPR. If the proposal is selected, the process of evaluating the contributions will follow the regular review procedure of PRPR; however, the guest editor(s) will take the responsibility of editor(s) of the SI manuscripts. Depending on the number and quality of the SI proposals that are submitted in this call, the editorial team may decide to accept one or more proposals. However, in case the editorial team judges that none of the proposals meets the quality standards of the journal, it can also be decided that none of the suggested proposals will be accepted for further development and production.

Once the editorial team of PRPR approves the proposal, the guest editor(s) will be informed of the time line for the production process. The guest editor(s) will from then on be the primary contact person(s) for the contributors to the SI and should inform them about deadlines for submission and further procedures. The full papers for the SI should be uploaded in Editorial Manager (the online submission system) and handled from there by the guest editor(s) who is(are) expected to manage the review process. The editorial office of PRPR will assist if needed.

Each paper for the SI will be evaluated by three anonymous reviewers. The guest editorial will not be sent out to external reviewers, but will be evaluated by the editorial team of PRPR. After the reviewers’ reports have been received, the guest editor(s) decide(s) on the manuscript, inform(s) the authors of the decision, and set(s) the deadline for the revised manuscript. It may occur that one or more of the papers is rejected based on the reviewer reports. At this stage the editors-in-chief will be informed of the outcome and, if necessary, make a joint decision on how to proceed. The guest editor is responsible for ensuring that all papers are of sufficiently high quality and form a coherent set of papers for the SI.

If you have any further queries, please contact PRPR editors-in-chief Kara Joyner and Corey Sparks.

Click this link for a PDF of the above information.

The following letter was sent to Senators Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer on August 5, 2020, to provide SDA's perspective on recent changes to the operations of the 2020 Census. A PDF of the letter is available here.

*********

Dear Senators McConnell and Schumer,

Since its foundation in the 1970s, the Southern Demographic Association (SDA) has supported demographic programs of educational institutions, research organizations, and state and local governments throughout the Southern U.S. SDA is composed of demographers working in private industry, in government, in non-profit organizations, and in educational settings. As users of Census data, we are concerned about the recent decision to shorten the 2020 Census response period to September 30, 2020 from the previous published date of October 31, 2020, and urge you to include imperative language in the next Senate COVID relief package (HEALS Act) that would extend the statutory reporting deadlines for the 2020 Census by four months.

Owing to its racial/ethnic diversity combined with areas of extreme poverty and the extensive and varied geographies in which our populations are located, the 2020 Census self-response rates in the South and for most of our states lag that of the rest of the country. Thus, a count cut short risks impacting our member states’ representation in Congress and risks muting the voices of diverse communities including Black, Latinx, Asian, American Indian, immigrant, and rural populations living in the South. An incomplete count risks the Census Bureau’s own credibility and will make it difficult for demographers to provide accurate and timely information and analyses for our constituent organizations and clients.

Our organization supports the US Census Bureau’s original plan to extend the deadline to complete the 2020 Census through October 31, 2020 and further to extend the deadline for reporting of Apportionment counts to April 30, 2021 and Redistricting data to June 30, 2021 as previously requested by the Secretary of Commerce on April 13, 2020. The additional month for data collection helps to ensure a complete count. The additional four months between data collection and reporting are critical for ensuring the accuracy of the count through data review and quality control. We urge Congress to pass legislation to reflect these new deadlines.

The House of Representatives has already approved an extension of the 2020 Census operations as part of its most recent COVID relief package. We urge the Senate to stay the course by agreeing to an extension provision in its next COVID relief package (HEALS Act), so that the Census Bureau is not forced to rush remaining enumeration operations and critical data review, processing, and tabulation activities.

Thank you for your consideration of this request and for supporting the full and fair 2020 Census.

Sincerely,

Johnelle Sparks, President, Southern Demographic Association

CC:US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs

(22 June 2020)
Updated work from David A. Swanson, Ph.D:

• "A Tale of 39 Counties: Re-opening Washington and Political Orientation"
   

(16 June 2020)
Updated work from David A. Swanson, Ph.D:

• "A Tale of Two Counties: Re-opening Skagit and Whatcom"
  
  

(3 June 2020)
Updated work from David A. Swanson, Ph.D:

• "An Early-Warning Covid-19 Alert and Response Protocol for San Juan County and Other Seasonal Resort Communities"

(8 May 2020)
Updated work from David A. Swanson, Ph.D:

• "The Lack of Containment Measures: Does It Constitute Senicide?"
  
  

(4 May 2020)
Updated work from David A. Swanson, Ph.D:

• "Monitoring the COVID-19 Pandemic in Benton County: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly"

(2 May 2020)
Updated work from David A. Swanson, Ph.D:

• "Whatcom County COVID-19: The Final Report"

(24 Apr 2020)
Updated work from David A. Swanson, Ph.D:

• "Modeling and the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Local Area Perspective"

(21 Apr 2020)
Updated work from David A. Swanson, Ph.D:

• Dr. Swanson writes about the problems associated with modelling the COVID-19 pandemic when confronted with bad data. He does this by comparing Whatcom and Benton Counties in the State of Washington. 
• To read more, click this link.

(20 Apr 2020)
Updated work from David A. Swanson, Ph.D:

• To follow up the suggestions in the first two pieces, I now have a series of seven articles in The Northwest Citizen, including one co-authored with Ron Cossman on "estimating unconfirmed cases."
• More are coming, including one on "data quality" on Monday, April 21st. 
• All of these articles can be found at https://nwcitizen.com/.
• The seven published articles are below as PDF files. Also below as a PDF file is a "thought piece" on this type of work, "Modeling the COVID-19 Pandemic." Following the "barefoot Doctors" movement in China, one could call this "barefoot demography, using basic, simple methods to assist underserved non-urban areas.

30 MAR 2020 - NORTHWEST CITIZEN - WHATCOM BASELINE

05 APR 2020 - NORTHWEST CITIZEN - WHATCOM HOSPITALIZATIONS

07 APR 2020 - NORTHWEST CITIZEN - BENTON COUNTY FORECASTS

10 APR 2020 - NORTHWEST CITIZEN - 2ND UPDATE WHATCOM

14 APR 2020 - NORTHWEST CITIZEN - UNCONFIRMED CASES

17 APR 2020 - NORTHWEST CITIZEN - 3RD UPDATE WHATCOM

THOUGHT PIECE - MODELING AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC SWANSON

THOUGHT PIECE - MODELING A 2X2 PERSPECTIVE SWANSON

(30 Mar 2020)
See the following link for a PDF document, which was prepared by David A. Swanson, Ph.D. Corresponding data is also attached in an Excel document.

• Suggestions on how demographers can contribute both to alleviating the pandemic and doing research on it. 

COVID-19 FORECAST BASELINE & ALTERNATIVE SURGE PEAK (PDF)

COVID-19 CASES IN CLARK COUNTY BASELINE & SCENARIO 1 (Excel)

The US Census Bureau’s Demographic Programs Directorate has two new job announcements for Career–conditional (permanent) opportunities, which are found on USAJOBS.gov.  The Demographic Programs Directorate has 5 divisions and over 75 branches.

The vacancy announcements listed below opened on Monday, May 18, 2020 and will close at 11:59 p.m., EST on Monday, June 1, 2020.  

Announcement Number: ADDP-2020-0018

This vacancy announcement may be used to fill multiple GS-1530-07/09 Statistician (Demography) positions in the Demographic Programs Directorate.

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/PrintPreview/568378300

Announcement Number: ADDP-2020-0017

This Direct Hire vacancy announcement may be used to fill multiple GS-1530-11/12 Statistician (Demography) positions in the Demographic Programs Directorate.

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/PrintPreview/568385900

• Applicants can preview the vacancy questions by clicking on the link at the bottom of the Qualifications and Evaluations section of each announcement.
• Applicants applying to these announcements should read the "who may apply" section carefully to determine their eligibility/area of consideration.

 

NOTE:

In order for applicants to search merit (status) job announcements, they must select "Federal Employees" on the search page in USAJOBS. The default choice is "U.S. Citizens" and, after clicking the "Search" button, will only display DE (public) announcements. Clicking "Federal Employees" and then the "Search" button will display both merit and DE announcements. 

 

The Demographic Directorate:

The Demographic Programs Directorate provides relevant and accurate information on the size, distribution, and characteristics of the nation's population, income and poverty, and housing. In addition to having a vital role in the Decennial Census, Demo is responsible for a vast array of surveys and data products that fill the nation's need for current information between censuses. We provide information for policy decisions to promote the economic and social well- being of the United States.

Additionally, the Directorate is responsible for: gathering international demographic data; providing survey and statistical services to other government agencies, such as survey design, data collection, and data processing; maintaining strong partnerships with sponsors and stakeholders; and designing and marketing new products that meet national and international information needs. 

All interested candidates are invited to apply. Please forward to others who may be interested.

________________________________________________

Dave Zaslow, Economist

Demographic and Economic Studies Branch, International Programs, Population Division

U.S. Census Bureau

301-763-6195

census.gov  | @uscensusbureau

First, I hope all of you are staying healthy during this challenging time. The SDA board of directors met on Friday, April 24^th, and determined it is best for us to not hold a face-to-face annual meeting in October 2020. This decision was made to keep everyone healthy, to consider broader economic considerations, and to allow for an annual meeting that can appropriately honor and celebrate the 50^th anniversary of our organization. 

Currently, we are planning on hosting our 50^th anniversary meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee in October 2021. The board is also discussing ways we can offer a virtual roundtable discussion for our membership to engage together this October 2020. More information on that, memberships, and elections will follow.

Please feel free to contact me with any concerns, and thank you for understanding the need for this decision at this time. Stay healthy!

Best,

Johnelle Sparks
SDA President

The NIH is deeply concerned for the health and safety of people involved in NIH research, and about the effects on the biomedical enterprise in the areas affected by the HHS declared public health emergency for COVID-19. Due to the potential exceptional impact, we want to assure our recipient community that NIH will be doing our part to help you continue your research.

This is a rapidly evolving situation and we will provide updated guidance and information as it becomes available; but please see links below for current information.

• Please click the following link for more information: 

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/natural_disasters/corona-virus.htm

• Please click the following link for an instructional video: 

"PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information Form Walk-Through" 

Please click on this link for more information about the new job position at Nielsen of Lead Statistician!

Information provided to SDA by:

Collin McCarter

Senior Data Scientist at Nielsen

collin.mccarter@nielsen.com