Census Tests Will Create Additional Jobs in Puerto Rico

AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION REQUIRES ROSSELLÓ NOT TO DISMANTLE PUERTO RICO'S STATISTICS INSTITUTE

The executive director attacked the measure and invited the Government to take statistics seriously at this time of fiscal crisis

San Juan, PR, January 25, 2018 — The American Statistical Association, known as the American Statistical Association (ASA) today released a cyber petition entitled Clear Accounts: Let's Preserve the Autonomy and Impartiality of the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute in which he calls on both Governor Ricardo Rosselló and members of the Legislature to desist from transferring the functions of the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (IEPR) to the Puerto Rico Department of Economic Development and Trade in order to eventually outsource all the statistical functions of the Government of Puerto Rico.

The ASA request makes specific reference to Reorganization Plan No. 1 And to Senate Bill 809, which was published yesterday and signed by five scientists from prestigious entities such as Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Yale University.

In addition, he emphasizes that this measure “would dismantle the IEPR and its autonomy, and would jeopardize the transparent and impartial statistical analyses that are critical to the functioning of Puerto Rico and to decision-making in all sectors of society, public and private.”

To this end, the executive director of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago, insisted that everywhere in the world there is a recognition of the need for official statistics to be prepared by independent governmental entities so that they can carry out their functions in a manner totally disconnected from political influences.

The Government of Puerto Rico has a long history of producing, disseminating and presenting rigged, outdated, misinterpreted, and incomplete statistics, and then access to sources of information is not provided so that the information can be verified, either by the citizen or by a congressman. The reality is that statistics are a serious issue and it is time for our Government to take them seriously, particularly if it wants to address its own fiscal problem.

Marazzi Santiago assured that there is no way that the proposed reorganization of the Institute of Statistics, as a program within the Department of Economic Development and Trade or outsourced by it, will solve the serious problem of reliability and credibility that the Government of Puerto Rico has with its statistics.

“We appreciate the efforts of the American Statistical Association (ASA) to create a vehicle that allows data users to express themselves publicly about the proposed reorganization,” said Dr. Marazzi-Santiago.

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The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity responsible for coordinating the Government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and have quick and universal access. The Institute has in its inventory, accessible through www.estadisticas.pr, more than 300 statistical products. In addition, it is a guardian and provides access to over 100 data sets or “data sets” through www.data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: www.indicadores.pr.

For more information you can visit our website: www.estadisticas.pr. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook (estadisticas.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.

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PRESS RELEASE

RED STATE DATA CENTER OF PUERTO RICO

RECRUITING FOR THE 2020 CENSUS BEGINS

San Juan, PR, February 5, 2019 — The Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico (Institute) announced today that the platform for applying for employment opportunities, related to the next Decennial Census 2020 in Puerto Rico, is now operational. The recruitment carried out by the Federal Census Bureau (U.S. Census Bureau) emerges as part of the planning of the important census operation that is coming. As the leading entity of the Network State Data Center (SDC) of the U.S. Census Bureau in Puerto Rico, the Institute urges all interested persons to complete the employment application. The 2020 Census job application platform is available online at the following email address: https://tinyurl.com/ybsulewp.

To apply for employment with the Census Bureau, applicants must complete three steps: 1) Create an applicant profile, 2) Provide personal information, and 3) Complete an evaluation, depending on employment preference. For general questions about the application process, you can consult the employment applications section at: https://tinyurl.com/yd9hu5vo. If you have questions about the operations of the U.S. Census Bureau in Puerto Rico, you can contact us at: https://estadisticas.pr.gov/contacto.

“Given the complexity of a Decennial Census, activities and projects intensify as we approach the date of the enumeration (April 1, 2020). We are already a little more than a year away from the event, and in this case the application and evaluation phase of candidates for the various positions offered by the Census Bureau begins. Timely recruitment is vital, since the positions involve specialized training that will result in the best possible enumeration of the population,” said Alberto L. Velázquez Estrada, Manager of Statistical Projects at the Institute.

For his part, Dr. Orville M. Disdier, Acting Executive Director, noted that “The preparation of the Decennial Census is a complex and very precise task, which is carried out in a relatively short time. Fortunately, at the Institute we are coordinating and managing all the work processes that need to be completed before April 1, 2020. All of the Institute's demographic and statistical work, vital for the economic and social development of Puerto Rico, is up to date.”

As the leading entity of the Puerto Rico SDC, the Institute manages the SDC portal, which contains the main statistical reports and publications of the U.S. Census Bureau about Puerto Rico, specifically those that are most in demand. These publications include: Annual population estimates, the Puerto Rico Community Survey (Puerto Rico Community Survey), and official statistics on Puerto Rico's 10-year population and housing censuses, among others. The Puerto Rico SDC portal can be accessed through: https://censo.estadisticas.pr/.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity responsible for coordinating the Government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and have quick and universal access. The Institute has in its inventory, accessible through www.estadisticas.pr.gov, over 300 statistical products. In addition, it is a custodian and provides access to over 100 data sets or “data sets” through https://data.pr.gov/ and to over 40 tables and more than 6,000 indicators through: www.indicadores.pr.

For more information you can visit our website: www.estadisticas.pr.gov. In addition, you can follow us on cyber social networks through Facebook (estadisticas.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.

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