KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times

Hugh Hughes is one of a battalion of temporary workers who just wrapped up work as address canvassers for the U.S. Census Bureau.

The answer came to Hugh Hughes at church, via postcard.

It came to Margaret Cunningham through the car radio.

Each needed work, and each found it at the U.S. Census Bureau.

Hughes, 45, a cabinetmaker and father of four, got laid off from his last job in Lynchburg in December. "I got a turkey and a pink slip," he said.

About the same time, Cunningham, 49, a career human resources professional, was finishing up a master's degree at Radford University. "I graduated into an economy that was just sliding down the hill, no brakes."

In the car one day, she heard an ad for job openings at the census. She called the bureau right there from her cellphone.

Hughes saw the same call for workers on a postcard that arrived at Rainbow Forest Baptist Church.

Within a few weeks, both were temporary federal government employees, trudging through neighborhoods helping to confirm the address lists to which census questionnaires will be mailed in 2010.

"It's been a godsend to get some money into the house," Cunningham said.

Such are the stories of the happy collision of the 23rd decennial census and the worst economic downturn in decades. It's a $14.7 billion operation that over two years will need thousands and thousands of workers.

The census office in Roanoke has hired 1,100 temporary workers so far, choosing from an especially well-qualified pool of workers thanks to high unemployment, said Tom Story, manager of the Roanoke Census Bureau and a temp himself. He's hired authors, professors, real estate agents, farmers, retirees, even the former chief executive of a small company.

The pay ranges from $9 to $15 an hour in the Roanoke area. Some 5,000 workers have taken the screening test here so far, Story said.

Until October, there was no census office in Roanoke. A few weeks ago, with 900 workers in the field doing address canvassing, it was one of the area's largest employers. As of early June, it was back down to a couple of dozen workers.

As the census moves into other phases, many workers likely will be hired back. Come November, Virginia's three census offices will be joined by nine more, each in need of 1,000 workers to track down unreturned questionnaires and get them filled out.

For Hughes and Cunningham, the pay isn't what they'd be making in their chosen careers. When Hughes joined the census as a clerk, he was making less than he was drawing in unemployment, he said. He was later promoted to crew leader.

But it's not all about the pay. "I feel better when I'm working," he said.

And not everyone who comes to work for the census is doing it from dire need.

Catherine Connelly, 34, of Roanoke County has been a stay-at-home mom for several years after working as an elementary school teacher. She worked for the census as a crew leader to raise money to keep her children at Roanoke Catholic School.

Some of Connelly's workers were college students. Others were retirees. One was widowed a month before and almost quit, she said. She talked him into sticking with it.

Another woman, 79, was raising money to go to Nova Scotia. An avid bird-watcher with a list of 80 species she wants to see, she's seen 76 and can check off a couple more there.

Tricia Kidd, 62, of Lithia in Botetourt County, is Story's administrative assistant. She's been retired from the corporate world for 10 years. She and her husband both came to work for the census.

"I didn't expect to have this much fun at a full-time job at my age," she said.

"I had a blast," Hughes said. "You don't get micromanaged. ... So long as I was turning in numbers and things were getting done, they were OK with it."

"People feel like they're making good money, and feeling proud that they're part of something bigger," Connelly said.

The field work wasn't for everyone.

"When you hire as many people as we did as fast we did, you're going to have some issues," Story said.

Some people left on their own once they found out what the work was like: going door to door, ignoring no trespassing signs to get the job done, sometimes confronting unfriendly people.

Those interviewed said most people they encountered in the field were friendly and helpful. Yet there were stories of having guns waved at them or being chased from people's property.

"Once people were used to the fact that we were there, they quit calling the police on me," Cunningham said.

Three workers were bitten by dogs, Story said.

Every worker goes through a week of training, and field workers spent two days of it on the hand-held computers they used. The census used GPS-capable computers instead of paper maps to update mailing lists this year. They attempted to record the GPS coordinates of every residence in the country.

The mere use of computers and GPS tagging caused some consternation on numerous blogs.

"GPS coordinates of your front door will make it easier for the government to monitor you. The U.S. Census Bureau is simply an excuse -- a harmless looking means of obtaining the front door coordinates," Douglas Gibbs wrote on the conservative American Daily Review Web site.

"This is just another step by Obama to take Total Control of each and every person's Life," Ricky39 wrote on Newsvine.com.

The use of the GPS units was approved in 1998.

Story said the computers ultimately "exceeded expectations."

In his region, the address canvassing was supposed to take 12 weeks. It was finished in half that time.

That means Hughes and Cunningham are back to looking for work. But if the opportunity arises, they said, they'll gladly come back to work for the census.