ROANOKE (AP) -- It's not part of a bailout, but the federal government will be giving a boost to the job market as heads are counted for the census taken once every 10 years.

In Virginia, the process starts with 3,000 workers needed early next year to build address lists for the 2010 count.

The Census Bureau initially plans to hire 1,000 people at offices set up in Alexandria, Richmond and Roanoke, said B.J. Welborn, a spokeswoman for the five-state region that includes Virginia.

Late next year, many more workers will be needed to help count a U.S. population that has grown to more than 300 million. Welborn didn't have an estimate for Virginia, but said the work force of 100,000 initially hired nationwide is expected to grow to 1.4 million.

"We actually are building an army," she said. "It's a constitutional mandate that's too big for the federal government."

Welborn, who is based in Charlotte, N.C., expects maintaining the work force to be a challenge even with a sour economy that has resulted in layoffs in many industries.

She expects turnover, she said, because all the census jobs are temporary and offer no benefits. Hourly wages for the full- and part-time positions vary depending on a region's living costs.

Pay for most of the initial jobs will be $12 an hour in Roanoke, $18 in Richmond and $20 in Alexandria. Those workers will scour neighborhoods to document addresses that will receive census questionnaires.

Welborn said the field survey is needed to make sure growth since the last census is accounted for, as well as homes that might be overlooked.

"When you're actually on the ground, you see where people live," she said. "It could be an unexpected place, like above a store."

The bigger contingent needed late next year will be census takers, who will conduct interviews at homes that have not returned their census forms.

The good news for the 2010 census, Welborn said, is that everyone gets a short questionnaire. However, that doesn't mean you'll never have to suffer through the lengthy form that some residents received in previous counts. That form is now being sent out monthly to a sample of 250,000 homes around the nation.

The census, which must be completed by the end of 2010, is used to determine the number of congressional seats each state has, the shape of legislative districts and how $300 billion in federal funds that goes to communities every year is distributed.

Census-taking is far more complicated now than the first one was in 1790, when federal marshals on horseback counted about 4 million Americans.

"We're probably the fastest-growing developed country in the world," Welborn said.

Legal status isn't among the questions asked, she said, adding that it's a challenge to count everyone in a country that is "very, very diverse."

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)