I got offered a Census job--and I rejected it. Here's why.

[Berry Cool]

I've been out of work since July and have been on unemployment since then. For more than 20 years, I have always worked in an office. I know how to use both Macs and PCs. I know how to file and sort, etc. I took the Census exam and passed with a perfect score--and, of course, indicated exactly the type of work experience I have. I also live in a very economically depressed neighborhood with a very high rate of poverty and a low level of education; I'm doubtless one of the few residents who has any kind of college education at all, and I have a master's degree. You'd think they'd be on the phone to me pronto, offering me an office job, right?

Well, I got called just this morning and offered a job as an enumerator--yeah, going door to door. The job would pay $15.25 per hour, and I'd be working 30 hours a week for 6 to 8 weeks. They wanted to know right away whether I'd take it. No time to decide.

I had to say no. This job would pay me little more than I am currently getting every week in my unemployment check--and it would last only 6 to 8 weeks, and at the end of it I probably wouldn't be eligible for unemployment again. Even if I were, it would have to be for way less than I am currently receiving.

I have a master's degree and 20-plus years' experience in an office environment, I pass the exam with flying colors in one of the most economically depressed urban neighborhoods in the country, and the best they can offer me is a 6- to 8-week job pounding the pavement?

This is a farce.

I want to work, but I can't afford to work a temp job that lasts only for a few weeks. I literally cannot afford to. I guess I will have to tell unemployment I rejected a job offer, but I honestly don't think I could have afforded to accept it. And frankly, I think it's an insult that this is the best offer I got. Am I being unreasonable?