Census officials continue to fall behind their goals for hiring local outreach staff, a critical component in promoting the 2020 census among the hardest-to-count populations in the country, agency officials told an advisory committee.

While several aspects of the preparations, including address verification, are on or ahead of schedule, the U.S. Census Bureau said it remains more than 200 people short of its goal of hiring 1,500 local partnership staff ahead of next year’s count. The hiring problems have come as the agency ramps up for the 2020 enumeration that will be used to determine the number of congressional seats for each state, how federal funds are allocated, and to structure economic surveys.

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Local hires known as partnership specialists are meant to build relationships with regional groups and governments to promote the decennial enumeration. Willette Allen, an assistant division chief with the Census Bureau, noted that the agency currently has more than 50,000 partnerships with local and national organizations that help provide census outreach and serve as “trusted voices” to residents skeptical about participating.

“Although we are a little bit behind in hiring our folks, we are on time for getting our partners on board,” Allen said Thursday.