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The UK's tight labour market has made recruiting the army of workers needed to carry out the 10-year census more difficult than ever before.
More than 60,000 people have been employed to deliver census forms to every household in the country during a recruitment campaign that began in March 2000.
Pat Mann, who is in charge of human resources for the census which started last week, said additional radio and newspaper advertising was needed to find the necessary workforce.
She said, "The number of people involved is about one-and-a-half times the size of the navy. In this climate of full employment it has been more difficult than ever before to recruit the number of people we needed."
The census is controlled by about 100 area managers, who co-ordinate census district managers, team leaders and the thousands of enumerators who deliver the forms.
Mann and her six-strong team are in charge of every aspect of human resources during the census apart from the payroll, which has mainly been outsourced.
Mann's HR team also has to deal with dismissal procedures and organising reserves that are ready to step in at short notice.
It has to issue health and safety guidelines covering issues such as ensuring people delivering census forms don't overload their bags, particularly in Wales where forms have to be in both English and Welsh languages.
Special instructions have to be given to area managers in areas affected by foot-and-mouth disease so the workforce does not deliver to areas which have been quarantined.
