(CNN) The Census Bureau is ramping up recruiting in a push to hire up to half a million temporary workers for this year's count.

Census Director Steven Dillingham said this week that his agency is hoping hundreds of thousands more people will submit applications. So far, about 2.4 million have applied.

"We would still like to get to 2.67 million (applications)," Dillingham told reporters Tuesday. "We're confident we'll do it, and we'll do it in short order."

Why are so many temporary workers needed for the 2020 census? Getting a complete and accurate tally of every resident in the United States is a lot harder than it sounds.

The decennial count determines how billions of dollars in federal funds are distributed and the number of representatives each state gets in Congress.

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