PROVIDENCE — The Census Bureau has begun testing Rhode Islanders for the 600 part-time temporary jobs it wants to fill in April to gear up for the national count in 2010.

Kathleen Ludgate, the Boston-based regional director for the bureau, said yesterday about 1,000 people have already taken the half-hour test.

“We’ve gotten a pretty good response, but we’re still looking for qualified applicants,” she said.

Many more testing sessions have been scheduled and ultimately, when the census is going full-bore next year, about 2,000 Rhode Islanders will be on the payroll.

The offer of even a part-time job comes after the state’s unemployment rate hit 9.3 percent in November. The December number, to be released Jan. 23, is expected to be even higher.

Because the bureau wants people to work near their homes, a person’s address will be the first criteria for being hired. Within each geographical area, the people with the highest test scores will be hired first, according to Ludgate.

“We hire locally, based on where they live, then their test score,” she said.

Most jobs require a valid driver’s license and use of a car.

Pay starts at $15 per hour.

Workers need to be comfortable working the streets in their area, willing to knock on doors and engage people, and to use the hand-held computer that replaces the large binders census takers used to carry.

For most of the people who are selected, employment will come in short bursts.

“There will be a lot of peaks and valleys over the next 18 months,” Ludgate warned.

The 600 residents initially selected will work about 20 hours a week for eight weeks.

“It’s field work. People work out of their homes, mostly during the daytime” to find streets and check housing numbers, she said.

The next wave, requiring substantially fewer employees, will be for four weeks in late summer. Those workers will make arrangements to count people in group abodes, such as nursing homes and colleges.

The big wave arrives in April, May and June 2010, when about 3,000 Rhode Islanders will be needed to follow up on households where people have not mailed in their census forms. People hired for the first wave of jobs will automatically be qualified to be called back for subsequent waves.

“It’s like a substitute teacher,” said Ludgate.

There will also be quality-control jobs that last from now through part of next year, but those will involve a much smaller group of people, she said.

Anyone who wants to apply can call toll-free 1-866-861-2010, Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. They will be asked to enter their ZIP code so they can be referred to the local census office, which will give them an appointment to take the test.

Additional information is available at www.2010censusjobs.gov.

gemery@projo.com